Cultural diversity effects on nursing practice in the future

¶ … cultural diversity affect you as a nurse in ten years?

The nursing profession is developing rapidly in terms of a more inclusive and holistic approach to healing. This also includes a greater emphasis and understanding of the importance of cultural diversity. In ten years time I foresee that these two aspects - holistic nursing and cultural diversity -- will increasingly shape the nursing profession and the role of the modern nurse. Another factor that relates strongly to the future development of the professional nurse is the increasing drive towards nursing specialization.

In my own experience as a psychiatric nurse I have in recent years become aware of the importance of an understanding of cultural diversity. Whenever one treats or deals with patients from different cultures, one has to take into account their cultural norms and predilections in the process of nursing. This also relates to the view that nursing should be a profession that is as open as possible to the feelings and views of the patient. This means to be effective the nurse must be aware of the way that people from different cultures perceive and respond to the healing process.

This trend towards an awareness of cultural diversity is evident in many fields, including nursing and healthcare. In essence, we can describe diversity as being concerned with "….recognizing, respecting and valuing differences based on ethnicity, gender, color, age, race, religion, disability, national origin and sexual orientation" (Business Case for Diversity). One of the reasons given for the increasing importance of cultural diversity is the reduction of the barriers between cultures and nations that is a result of technology, travel and globalization. This is a fact that the modern nurse has to contend with. In term of the nursing and healthcare, studies note that "Diversity is a broad yet powerful idea that encompasses the ideas of difference and complexity. Multiple forms of diversity are important in nursing and health care, yet it is often only "cultural" diversity that comes to mind and commands attention " (Varcoe, 2004).

Coupled with this is the increasing emphasis on holistic nursing. This refers to the need to reassess or rethink nursing praxis in terms of concepts such as holistic health, holistic care, holistic nursing, and holistic medicine (Kim and Kollak, 2006, p. 90). This in effect meant that nurses have to consider and take into account various therapies and modes of treatment that are "…not based on the traditional biomedicine and natural sciences (Kim and Kollak, 2006, p. 90).

Therefore, in the light of these current developments, I envisage that the nurses will require much more comprehensive training in issues related to cultural diversity in the future. For example, the nurse will need to become more knowledgeable about the way that various cultures respond to conventional medicine and that alternative medicine and therapies play in the healing process.

The subject of alternative therapies illustrates the way that the role of nursing is changing. For example, it has been found that "…44% of Mexican-Americans had used alternative practitioners at least once in the previous year" and that "Mental or physical illness is seen by many Hispanics to be a consequence of behavior, or simply the result of fate" (Breeding, Harley, Rogers & Crystal, 2005).

This means that in future the nurse will need to be trained in greater depth in order to understand the way that other cultures perceive nursing and healthcare. The nurse in ten years time will be more capable and informed about the way that their role relates to cultural diversity.