Worldviews
The ultimate impact of the different worldviews on nursing practice is that they create some form of diversity in the ability for nurses to deliver on their expected health care services. Leininger (2002) argues that health care service delivery has experienced a major challenge due to some form of disconnect between the options presented by nurses when compared to the expectations of views presented by individual patients. In most cases, nurses encounter a situation where the quality of services that they offer does not match the set of views presented by their patients, thus, creating the need for a shift in terms of options presented. Ultimately, this would mean that nurses would focus more attention towards evaluating what their patients expected of them before engaging in a process would allow them to offer personalized health care services. For example, patients may have different religious worldviews on nursing meaning that different patients may have different expectations on nursing based on the variations in religious beliefs. In some cases, patients tend to reduce specific treatment options due to their religious beliefs, which is an important aspect that nurses ought to consider in their approach to offering quality health care services. In such cases, nurses must be willing to engage with their patients in a bid to finding the most suitable treatment option that would not conflict with a patient’s worldview on the treatment options presented. Another key impact or influence that would arise from the different worldviews presented on nursing practice is that they tend to create an avenue where communication would be considered as vital between patients and nurses as part of service delivery (Leininger, 2002).
The differentiations in worldviews presented create a provision where nurses find themselves in a position that would require them to engage with their patients at all times, which was one of the lacking elements in the nursing profession. For example, when a patient is working in a community that has different cultural settings, it would be important to engage with a patient in a bid to seeking his or her opinion on a given treatment option. In that case, the nurse focuses more on ensuring that the patient remains satisfied with the health care services offered while ensuring that patients maintain some element of loyalty. Thus, this means that the differentiations in worldviews create some form of positive influence on the nursing profession. Consequently, this would mean that all the approaches or actions that nurses engage as part of their nursing profession must be in conformity with the outward expectations from individual patients. The cultural worldview is one of the notable examples of worldviews in the nursing profession considering that cultural diversity creates diversity with regard to expectations from patients towards health care workers (Wainwright, 1997). In any given health care setting, health workers must engage in in-depth research that would allow them to understand the cultural variations for the communities living in the areas surrounding the health care setting. Ultimately, this would mean that the health services offered work in conformity with the cultural expectations from individual members of the communities. In addition, this would mean that every member of the community would be willing to seek treatment in the health care setting, as it respects the existing differentiations in terms of examples in health care. In my nursing practice, I will adopt a strategy where I will focus more on engaging with each of the patients that I handle in a bid to establishing some of their thoughts in the nature of health services that I deliver.
References
Leininger, M. (2002). Culture care theory: A major contribution to advance transcultural nursing knowledge and practices. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 189-192.
Wainwright, S. P. (1997). A new paradigm for nursing: The potential of realism. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26(6), 1262-1271.
Module 2 .1
Discussion board topic # 1 – Worldview
The number of instances where health care providers have experienced conflicts with regard to the services they offer to their patients when compared to expectations from patients is increasing significantly due to the increasing number of worldview. In cases where health care providers encounter patients with different worldviews towards the issue of nursing or health care, one must be willing to engage in a process that would guarantee effectiveness in capturing a worldview that reflects the patients’ needs (Wainwright, 1997). In an example, discussed between my classmates and me, we have encountered a situation where a diabetic patient does not follow the set-out treatment plan by his health provider. The outright refusal to follow the treatment plan comes about due to a situation where some patients tend to have a cultural worldview on modern medicine that does not allow them to use such medicine. Leininger (2002) argues that a patient has the right to reject or refuse a given treatment plan depending on what he or she would consider as being a disconnection with his or her cultural understanding the plan presented. In this particular case, the patient argued that taking the diabetes medication provided, he would go against his cultural ideals and ideologies. Ultimately, this led to a situation where he would not engage in the treatment plan presented, instead, focusing on other forms of treatment that would match his cultural ideologies.
References
Leininger, M. (2002). Culture care theory: A major contribution to advance transcultural nursing knowledge and practices. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 189-192.
Wainwright, S. P. (1997). A new paradigm for nursing: The potential of realism. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26(6), 1262-1271.
Discussion board topic #2 - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been incorporated into nursing in several ways, which have played a central role in building the profession towards its current position. Firstly, the theory on the Hierarchy of Needs may be of value in ensuring that nurses are able and willing to engage in a process that would allow them to accept or reject evidence from differing worldviews as a way of promoting holistic treatment (Forbes, King, Eastlick Kushner, Letourneau, Myrick, & Profetto‐McGrath, 1999). Holistic treatment focuses more on ensuring that one receives a comprehensive treatment plan that would reflect on his or her needs and expectations when focusing on health care service delivery (Forbes et al., 1999). Embracing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs enhances the capacity for health providers to understand the needs allowing them to deliver on the same. One important aspect to note is that patients tend to have varying needs that hinder positive health outcomes, which creates that platform where health providers must evaluate and deliver on such needs. Secondly, the theory has been incorporated in projecting health care as one of the most important needs of any individual, as this would highlight the need for every patient to focus more on accessing treatment in health care facilities. Letourneau & Allen (1999) argue that modern science has created a situation where the concept of logical positivism is not tenable and viable in promoting positive health outcomes. Thus, focusing on post-positivism, which may include the concept of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, would play that central position towards projecting positive avenues allowing patients to receive quality treatment (Letourneau & Allen, 1999).
References
Forbes, D. A., King, K. M., Eastlick Kushner, K., Letourneau, N. L., Myrick, A., & Profetto‐McGrath, J. (1999). Warrantable evidence in nursing science. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29(2), 373-379.
Letourneau, N., & Allen, M. (1999). Post‐positivistic critical multiplism: A beginning dialogue. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(3), 623-630.
