Importance of Cultural Awareness and Meeting Spiritual Need of Patient Assessment 3 Answer

INTRODUCTION

The diversity within population brings a huge challenge for healthcare providers to deliver culturally competent medical care.  Cultural and spiritual awareness is the ability of health professionals to provide culturally and spiritually competent holistic medical care. Cultural awareness is required to meet the personal, social and religious need of the patient and their families. Reflective practice improves the patient care quality outcome when provided through cultural competence training and development. For health care professionals, it is important to understand the cultural background, belief, behaviour and need of the patient to provide care. The nurse needs to adapt as per the expectation, wants and requirements of the patient to provide efficient and effective care. The essay describes the importance of cultural awareness and meeting the spiritual need of the patient.  The paper also reflects on the nurse ability as the spiritual facilitator for achieving holistic health. Paper also reflects on the personal viewpoint of worldview through the work of James sire and its challenges in nursing practices. 

CULTURAL AWARENESS AND SPIRITUAL NEED

Cultural awareness develops trust and communication between the patient/family and professionals. One of the biggest challenges for providing quality health care through culturally sensitive or congruent healthcare is the nursing conception of professional responsibility. Spiritual care has not been an essential part of the nursing practice however it has been recently recognized as an essential driving component of the patient positive impact. Therefore, in addition to the current spheres of the care provided by the nurse, I realized that spiritual care plays a critical role. Spiritual practice allows myself to have a long-term therapeutic relationship with the continuous achievement of well-being and patient need. I reflected that in nursing practice patient-centered decision making can be empowered through spiritual and cultural awareness hence channelizing patient preference in health and illness (Swihart & Martin, 2020). 

The cultural model of health incorporates the belief and values they advocate (Mary et al., 2016). These models of life and health have different dimensions that include family, cultural values, spirituality, mental and physical aspect. The health model evolved through cultural awareness believe in physical, biological, spiritual and socio-economical health. As culturally and spiritually competent nurse I can recognize the cultural difference occurring across all levels of diversity.  Spiritual awareness plays an important role in stress responses, sense of integrity and interpersonal relations (Younas, 2016). Spiritual care is particularly crucial at the end of life care. As a nurse, I need to understand the spiritual need of the patient and provide support their alleviating distress. As a practicing nurse I acknowledged the lack of competency within me to address the cultural and spiritual need of the patient and worked on it through learning sessions.

SELF REFLECTION ON ABILITY AS A SPIRITUAL FACILITATOR

Worldview is the set of presumptions hold by the individually regarding the makeup of the world. It determines one’s view regarding the events and circumstances of life and how they are understood, accepted and acted upon.  Once analyzing the eight-question of James Sire, 2008 on the worldview I could reflect on naturalism worldview as my preference of understanding. As I believed human personality being interrelation of chemical with values being manmade with not much existence and role of god, I reflected on having a naturalistic worldview of life. (Schultz & Swezey, 2013) 

Challenges that might be present when working with patients who do not share similar worldview can be observed in various potential aspects on nursing practice. These challenges can be presented in form of assumption further causing hindrance in personal nursing responsibilities in the sphere of counselling, health promotion, risk assessment, medication management, planning care schedule and follow up visits (Tilburt, 2010). A specific worldview can create biases towards people having contrasting worldview to naturalism causing altered patient care and quality of clinical interventions. 

After going through the learning sessions, I have learned to demonstrate nursing practice which emphasis on the importance of biological, psychological, social and other contextual factors of illness. It has also helped me on self-assessments of my assumption through reflection on action.  The learning has affirmed the awareness towards mindful practices requiring a detailed understanding of other’s culture and worldview to remove prejudice in practice. I could now better link to certain aspects of clinical manifestations prevalent in communities due to their cultural and spiritual tendency. These may be related to birth control, sterilization, healing, prayers, diet, pregnancy, privacy and blood transfusions etc. (Basem et al., 2020).

After working on the faith traditions tutorials, I can surely provide the services as a spiritual care provider as now I can collaborate the nursing process, role and responsibility with the spiritual and cultural need of the patient. I can now recognize the patient beliefs, need and healthcare goals along with thorough assessment of the spiritual need of the patient. In practicing nursing, I now focus on attaining a sense of gratification and peace to create better comfort and purpose in a patient’s life. Now I have developed several nursing interventions that allow me to provide better health outcome to the patient requiring spiritual healing and cultural equipped care imperative to holistic well-being (Strand et al., 2017).

PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT

As a culturally competent nurse, I would incorporate the care in the evidence-based practice, through treatment plan focused on providing care. Also, I would involve family member in care-plans as family and community play a crucial role in maintaining cultural awareness. I will also focus on the sustainable relationship between health and work. I will address challenges culture and spirituality may impose on various dimensions of health; this helps me in developing appropriate health promotional plan for my patient. As a culturally competent nurse, I will perceive health as a combination of religion, familial, Societal and self-belonging holistic well-being.

CONCLUSION

There are multiple determinants of the health which can be addressed through cultural competency. A culturally and spiritually competent nurse is capable of addressing inequality and disparity prevalent in the healthcare domain. Through the self-reflective knowledge and learning, we can assess the culturally tailored health care system. The challenges and barriers to cultural awareness can be overcome through understanding, acknowledgement and respect. The spiritual facilitation is necessary for addressing the satisfaction and well-being of the patient.