Transcultural Nursing in the Community: Understanding Cultural Diversity

1. Chapter 5Transcultural Nursing in the Community

2. The Meaning of Culture • Beliefs, values, and behavior shared by members of a society; they provide a design or roadmap for living • “The acquired knowledge that people use to generate behavior and interpret experience” (Spradley & McCurdy, 2005) • “A patterned behavioral response that develops over time as a result of imprinting the mind through social and religious structures and intellectual and artistic manifestations” (Giger & Davidhizar, 2002)

3. Other Key Terms • Race: biologically designated groups of people whose distinguishing features, such as skin color, are inherited • Ethnic group: collection of people who have common origins and a shared culture and identity; they may share a common geographic origin, race, language, religion, traditions, values, and food preferences (Spector, 2004) • Ethnicity: group of qualities that mark his or her association with a particular ethnic group or “who share cultural and/or physical characteristics including one or more of the following: history, political system, religion, language, geographical origin, traditions, myths, behaviors, foods, genetic similarities, and physical features (Ethnicity Online, 2007)

4. Other Key Terms (cont.) • Cultural diversity (cultural plurality): variety of cultural patterns coexisting within a designated geographic area • Subcultures:relatively large aggregates of people within a society sharing separate distinguishing characteristics • Microcultures: smaller groups within a subculture • Ethnocentrism: belief or feeling that one’s own culture is best • Ethnorelativism: seeing all behavior in a cultural context

5. Question Is the following statement true or false? • “Race” and “ethnicity” are interchangeable terms.

6. Answer • False • Race refers to biologically designated groups of people whose distinguishing features are inherited. Ethnicity refers to a group of qualities that mark a person’s association with a particular ethnic group or a group that shares cultural and/or physical characteristics.

8. Characteristics of Culture • Learned • Integrated • Shared • Mostly tacit • Dynamic

9. Ethnocultural Health Practices • World community • Biomedical view • Magicoreligious view • Holistic view • Folk medicine and home remedies • Herbalism • Prescription and over-the-counter drugs

10. Ethnocultural Health Practices (cont.) • Complementary therapies and self-care practices • Diet therapies (cancer diets, juice diets, fasting) • Gastrointestinal treatments (coffee enemas, high colonic enemas) • Balance and exercise activities (t’ai chi, yoga) • Sensory exposure (aromatherapy, music therapy, light therapy) • Therapeutic manipulation (acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology)

11. Role of the Community Health Nurse • Preparation • Cultural awareness (see Display 5.3) • Sensitivity • Assessment (use of appropriate tools; see Tables 5.7 and 5.8) • Teaching

12. Question Which of the following would describe a culture? • Inherited • Static • Individualized • Tacit

13. Answer d. Tacit • Culture is learned, integrated, shared, mostly tacit, and dynamic.

14. Selected Cultural Communities • Native American Indians, Aleut, and Eskimo communities • Population characteristics and culture • Health problems • Health beliefs and practices • Blacks or African Americans • Population characteristics and culture • Health problems • Health beliefs and practices

15. Selected Cultural Communities (cont.) • Asian Americans • Population characteristics and culture • Health problems • Health beliefs and practices • Hispanic Americans • Population characteristics and culture • Health problems • Health beliefs and practices

16. Selected Cultural Communities (cont.) • Arab populations and Muslims • Population characteristics and culture • Health problems • Health beliefs and practices

17. Transcultural Nursing Principles • Develop cultural self-awareness. • Cultivate cultural sensitivity. • Assess the client group’s culture. • Show respect and patience while learning about other cultures. • Examine culturally derived health practices.

18. Internet Resources • Office of Minority Health: http://www.omhrc.gov/omhrc/ • U.S. Census: http://www.census.gov • Immigration Assistance Section: http://theodora.com • Culture and Diversity Section: http://www.amsa.org • Kaiser Family Foundation: http://www.kff.org • Multicultural Health Communication Service: http://www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/ • Asian & Pacific Health: http://www.aapcho.org

19. Question Is the following statement true or false? • The first step of applying transcultural nursing principles is to cultivate cultural sensitivity.

20. Answer • False • The nurse should first develop cultural self-awareness and then cultivate cultural sensitivity.