NR394 Week 6 Discussion, Standards of Practice

NR394 Week 6 Discussion, Standards of Practice Douglas, Rosenkoetter, Pacquiao, Callister, Hattar-Pollara, Lauderdale et al. (2014) suggests that to implement this guideline, a staff nurse should “Establish a trusting relation through open and sensitive communication, active listening and respect of client’s cultural beliefs and practices.” I believe we do this already because in our organization, we have a “commit to sit” plan. We commit to establishing a personal connection with each patient. If a patient can feel comfortable enough to share something personal, not related to why they are admitted in the hospital, then they receive better care because of that connection they share with the nurse. On each admission, regardless of culture/ethnicity/etc, we always ask if there are any cultural/religious beliefs that we need to be aware of in order to provide the best quality of care to them. Another intervention suggested is to “Obtain focused information about client’s presenting illness and his/her perception of causes of illness and beliefs about cultural treatment modalities” (Douglas et al., 2014). I think this is an area where we could improve on. We do well on getting information about their presenting illness, BUT, we could improve on possessing knowledge about different cultural treatment modalities. In past discussions, I’ve talked about how the Hispanic population sometimes believes in a hot/cold balance in diseases/illnesses and may not follow our treatment plan if it interferes with this imbalance (Juckett, 2005). I believe that my organization could provide more education regarding different cultural practices when it comes to health/wellness/illness beliefs. If we can find appropriate interventions for treatment that does not interfere with their “normal” treatment remedies, there would be an increase in compliance and therefore a higher quality of care can be achieved. References Douglas, M.K., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D.F., Callister, L.C., Hattar-Pollara, M., Lauderdale, J., Milstead, J., Nardi, D., Purnell, L. (2014) Standards of Practice for Culturally Competent Nursing Care Executive Summary. Expert Panel on Global Nursing & Health. Pp 109-121. [PDF File] Retrieved from Juckett, G. (2005) Cross-Cultural Medicine. Am Fam Physician 72(11). P. . Retrieved from ~Jerri B