
Cultural competence in nursing is one of the most important components of quality nurse’s care. It implies understanding, respecting, and integrating cultural differences into healthcare practice. Experienced nurses must be able to keep their opinions to themselves, value patients’ thoughts, desires, and preferences, not judge anyone, and ensure that people’s values and beliefs are met along with care and treatment needs.
Cultural competence is a harmonious combination of behaviors, attitudes, and policies in a system, institution, or among professionals that enables them to effectively navigate cross-cultural situations.
The term “culture” is chosen for a reason, as it represents the complex structure of human behavior, while the term “competence” refers to the capacity to behave effectively.
Thus, among the components of cultural competence nursing are awareness of the norms and values of cultures and taking into account their perceptions, knowledge of beliefs and practices, which involves understanding the social and emotional needs of people from different social groups, and skills that demonstrate culturally appropriate behaviors.
There are five pivotal elements that contribute to the enhancement of cultural competence within a system, institution, or agency:
Due to rapid migration, the United States has experienced dramatic changes in its population. There are now many ethnic minorities living in the country, which means that people with different cultural backgrounds must learn to interact and live happily within one country.
Nursing and cultural competence are two interrelated things. Here is why it’s vital:
All in all, cultural competence enhances the quality of nursing care, reduces disparities, and fosters effective communication and teamwork, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers.
Cultural competence positively impacts patient care by improving their outcomes, reducing barriers and disparities in health care, and promoting patient satisfaction because their needs and preferences are recognized and respected.
Among good examples of cultural competence in nursing are established communication, providing a comprehensive evaluation to collect information about patients’ beliefs, values, and practices that may affect their medical treatment, respecting their traditions (e.g., offering a special diet), effective care planning tailored to specific needs, exploring norms, taboos, and expectations of health care common to different groups, understanding the religious practices and beliefs as well as an appropriate environment for each person individually.
EXAMPLE: Respecting Dietary Preferences
Situation: The Muslim patient has halal dietary restrictions, which means she only eats food cooked and processed according to Islamic dietary laws.
Culturally Competent Response: In this situation, a nurse should ensure that the patient’s dietary needs are met (e.g., ask about some preferences, then ask the hospital’s dietary staff to ensure that the food is cooked according to the patient’s needs).
Outcome of the Response: The Muslim patient enjoys culturally competent care. She feels comfortable and trusts the nurse, so she responds more responsibly to treatment measures and gains better health outcomes quickly.
According to statistics mentioned in the article about Cultural Competence in Health Care from Georgetown University researchers, people from diverse backgrounds often face challenges related to:
Language Barriers:
Low Literacy:
Healthcare Disparities:
Discrimination and Bias.
These are some tips on how nursing students and qualified nurses can enhance their skills and knowledge:
Competent care is what makes it possible to achieve equal access to medical treatment and improve health outcomes for all people. Still, there are some strategies that may improve the quality of nurses’ work. For example, cultural competence should be part of policy goals to improve the quality of care. The first priority should be collecting and analyzing demographic data. Next, cultural competency in nursing training should become a job requirement, and performance evaluations of nurses should be implemented to ensure that all measures are met. Hospitals should provide translation and interpretation services to overcome language barriers.
All in all, the importance of cultural competence in nursing is huge. When working with a patient, the nurse should maintain confidentiality and inform clients about the risks, advantages, and treatment alternatives. Ethical values such as human dignity, privacy, fairness, autonomy in decision-making, accuracy and precision in care, commitment, human relations, empathy, honesty, and individual and professional competence should also be kept in mind.
As healthcare disparities still persist across the United States, we recommend you check the practical guide to implementing the National CLAS Standards.
We hope now it’s clear what is cultural competence in nursing. To provide fair and patient-centered care and to understand the unique cultural attributes of patients, nurses must be culturally competent. More attention must be paid to this aspect of health care, and we should not turn a blind eye to the situations that occur with many people aligned to other traditions.
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