Introduction
Cultural awareness is an important concept in nursing as it helps patients to adapt to the environments that they have found themselves in. It is important to ensure that patients are made comfortable in their environments for quick recovery. This is an important aspect that should be integrated in nursing. This paper will assess various issues in cultural assessment in nursing. It will summarize four articles on cultural awareness in nursing.
Integrating cultural awareness in nursing students
In order to meet the need of serving a population with multicultural make, it is a requirement to teach the nursing students and faculty members the importance of this aspect. With an anticipated increase in multicultural population, there have been calls to educate nurses to be sensitive of this new environment that will be experienced. This will enable nurses and faculty members have a way of dealing with a multicultural population(Rew et al. 2). Nursing faculty should look for strategies of integrating cultural awareness to nursing graduates in order to serve a diverse population. There are various approaches that have been devised that are used to teach cultural awareness. Some include the devotion of a whole course to the teaching of culture for nursing students. Another approach includes the introduction of virtual classrooms and internet classes. The aspect of cultural awareness in the nursing field normally starts with the nursing faculty and how they deal with their own cultures. The attitude they have towards different cultures affects the way they will teach cultural awareness to nursing students. It is, therefore, important to understand that cultural awareness starts with the nursing faculty(Rew et al. 4). The nursing faculty members should understand how different cultures have affected their own lives.
There are four dimensions to cultural awareness. One of the dimensions is the role of someone’s culture in the formation of values and beliefs. Another dimension is the knowledge of how the various students who come from various backgrounds have towards the different cultures in the classrooms. It is important to understand how students cope in their new environments. The third dimension is integrating different perspectives in the curriculum. It is important to have different perspectives and teachings towards cultural awareness in the nursing curriculum. The fourth dimension is to have different learning methods for students who come from various backgrounds. Tis will make them adapt to learning fast(Rew et al. 4).
One of the most important aspects regarding student nursing is that faculty members should understand the learning of these students. The nursing faculty should understand the stages that students undergo when they are developing their own identities regarding to their different races. With this knowledge, they will assist to become facilitators in the whole process. They will assist the students in learning to adapt fast to any environment they land themselves into. The different phases will help students learn the different aspects of cultural diversity. It could be that they are required to have gone through a given phase before they assimilate a given cultural awareness principle. The cultural awareness will affect the way information is passed and also how this information is internalized in the entire process. The ability of the faculty members to pass information regarding cultural awareness will rely on the cultural background of the students. It will also depend on the learning styles of different students in their processes of learning.
Another important area where cultural awareness come into play is in areas beyond the confines if the classroom. With this, faculty members will bring impact to cultural awareness in their processes of carrying out research. Currently, there is lack of research in this field of cultural awareness and is affecting the way research is being carried out. There are various research topics and areas which can be undertaken in bringing out the best of nurses and nursing field in developing cultural awareness(Rew et al. 3).
Cultural competence in healthcare delivery
The constructs that have been defined have a relationship between one another. The constructs that are encountered by the healthcare providers include cultural awareness, cultural skill, cultural encounters, cultural knowledge, and cultural desires. All these must be met by the providers of health. They will have to undergo each of these constructs in their processes. They are important processes that nursing providers have to understand. These constructs are independent and no matter the time that a healthcare provider enters the process, all the constructs have to be addressed(Campinha-Bacote, “The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Model of Care” 4).
Cultural competency in nursing education through changing curriculum (Mikal Black)
This is yet an important aspect in the strife to provide nursing competence in the process of nursing education. It is important to understand the role that education process has in integrating cultural knowledge to nursing students. One of the most important components in the learning process is the curriculum. Many researches have shown that competency in nursing is achieved greatly through the way student nurses are taught in their courses. There is a need to have cultural encounters in the development of cultural competency. The curriculum should be designed in such a way that it allows students to gain their cultural competency from interactions. This aspect is lacking in most curricula. There should be community service in the curriculum in order for students to learn the other cultures that. With this aspect, it is believed that two people reinforced bring a greater impact to an individual than if one was working on their own(Black, Soelberg, and Springer 3).
Cultural skills are skills that enable one to work in diverse cultures. This is honed and enhanced further when one is allowed to work in various diverse cultures. Students should be taught to develop these skills to enable them work in diverse backgrounds(Black, Soelberg, and Springer 3).
Purnell model for cultural competence
This is a model which was developed to help nursing students to undertake their assessment. With this model, there are integration of different theories which come from family, community, administration and organizational settings. Nursing students are taught to integrate these diverse theories in their development of cultural competencies(Purnell 7). There are primary and secondary components of culture include such factors as nationality, race, culture, gender and the religious inclinations of an individual. These are the key components that nursing students should strive to understand and integrate in their learning. The secondary statuses include the level of education, socio-economic status and political beliefs and orientations(Purnell 3).
Strategic initiatives
In order to provide quality care, the first strategic initiative that is suggested is to integrate cultural learning to nursing students. This is done by overhauling the curriculum by coming up with a better curriculum that integrates cultural encounters with the different cultures. With this initiative also, nursing faculty should be taught to change their views regarding cultural competencies. They will be able to change the way nursing is taught and will affect the learning process.
The second strategy is that of adopting the Purnell model of cultural competency. With this model, the various components and theories that have been learned in class will be integrated in the practice of nursing. With this, the theories that affect the cultural development of the population will be learned.
The third strategic initiative is to have nurses work in environments which are cultural different from theirs. This will enable them have a practical view of the cultural competence that they are undertaking.
Works Cited
Black, Mikal, Terri Soelberg, and Pamela Springer. “Cultural Competency in Nursing Education.” Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentation (2008): 1–10. Print.
Campinha-Bacote, J. “The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Model of Care.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing (2002): n. pag. Web. 16 June 2013.
Campinha-Bacote, J. “The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Model of Care.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing 13.3 (2002): 181–184. Web. 24 May 2013.
Purnell, L. “The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing 13.3 (2002): 193–196. Web. 2 June 2013.
Rew, Lynn et al. “Measuring Cultural Awareness in Nursing Students.” International Journal of Nursing 42.6 (2003): 249–258. Print.
