Understanding ethnic diversity in nursing care

¶ … Competencies

Among the Core Competencies for nursing educational components provided by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, "Patient-Centered Care" is listed first. The important task for nursing students in this component is to provide:

"…holistic care" that fully recognizes "an individual's preferences, values and needs," and also "respects the patient or designee as a full partner in providing compassionate, coordinated, age and culturally appropriate safe, and effective care (MACN).

Within this milieu, the student should be assessing healthcare needs "through the patient's eyes" and the student should be respecting and encouraging the patient's opinions and decisions relative to his or her care (MACN). The student should fully understand the "multiple dimensions of patient-centered care" which includes: a) understanding the preferences and values of the patient and the patient's family; b) coordinating the integration of the care; c) providing physical and emotional comfort and support; c) communicating the patient's values, needs and preferences to other members of the healthcare support team; d) assessing the values and needs of the patent through "clinical review, implementation of care plan, and evaluation of care" (MACN).

Moreover, a student nurse focusing on a unit in "Patient-Centered Care" should: a) show respect for the diversity of the "human experience"; b) meet the holistic needs no matter the ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic or spiritual values and beliefs of the patient; c) initiate treatments to relieve pain and suffering "…in light of patient values, preferences, and expressed needs"; and d) appreciates and understands the effects of health and social policies on those individuals from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds (MACN).

Research Questions related to a Patient-Centered Care task (the nurse appreciates and understands the effects of health and social policies on those individuals from diverse ethnic, spiritual, socioeconomic, social, and cultural backgrounds).

ONE: How does a nurse interact with the family of a recent immigrant (from Malaysia) whose cultural values are vastly different, who don't speak English, and whose family member / patient suffers from anxiety due to the unfamiliar hospital setting in the U.S.

TWO: Communication with a patient is vitally important when there is a potential for cultural conflicts; i.e., "ethical issues become more prominent when a lack of communication occurs" (Ludwick, et al., 2000). Hence, what strategies should be put in place in order to avoid these conflicts? Name at least four strategies.

THREE: An AIDS patient is admitted to a nurse's floor and in addition to the vital need to sterilize instruments with special care, the patient's friends -- who appear to be gay and may also have HIV infections -- a problem arises because the visitors insist on sitting with the patient beyond visiting hours. How does the nurse handle this situation?