Question

How can community health nurses apply the strategies of cultural competence to their practice? Provide at least one example from each of the following four strategies: cultural preservation, cultural accommodation, cultural repatterning, and cultural brokering. What is a possible barrier to applying the strategy/example chosen? Use an example that is different than the postings of other students. This example should include an evidence-based article that addresses a cultural issue. Response should include an APA reference.

Answer 1

In today’s multicultural society, the cultural competence is an important aspect especially in nursing practice. Therefore, the community health nurses use different methods in cultural competence by adopting community participatory practice-based approach that helps the nurses to know about traditions, strengths and history of diverse communities. With this competence they also get to know about the background and many important aspects involved in the varied communities (Betancourt et al, 2005).

Thus, there is a big need to inculcate the cultural competence with health care practices. And such implementations can be discussed in following examples:

1. Cultural preservation- If in any case, a patient is an Indian and is about to undergo a major surgery. Before that surgery the family of that patient wants to pray around him. Here, the nurse will encourage this aspect of culture by supporting them (Johnson, 2015).
2. Cultural accommodation- Here, the nurses will follow any custom of the patient that is proven to be not harmful, as in case of Mexican ritual. The ritual is in believing that placing a key or some metal object on the navel of new born baby could promote healing and the nurses allow this to happen (Gao et al, 2015).
3. Cultural repatterning- In this example the nurse helps the patient in changing their previous cultural custom to another which otherwise would have been harmful for the patient. Like if the patient is indulged in the use of herbs due to cultural values and the nurse stops him from use of particular herbs that can cause adverse effects on his health.
4. Cultural brokering- The nurse acts as cultural broker by bridging the gap between patients of different cultures thereby using his/her own knowledge of health science understandings and his/her own cultural rituals for an effective, beneficial and proper health care.

Besides all this, many barriers could also come in the way of nursing practices, like linguistic barriers, belief barrier and cultural diversity. For an example, if a nurse encourages a woman to attend free breast-feeding classes before giving birth to a new born baby and explaining her about possible health benefits associated with breast-feeding using the strategies of both cultural repatterning and cultural accommodation. Such formulae when are employed by nurses, they surely encourage women to change their cultural practices which were harmful otherwise (cultural repatterning) and making them switch to use formula-feed milk which is considered to be the gold standard for infant feeding (cultural accommodation) (Holland, 2017).

References:

Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Park, E. R. (2005). Cultural competence and health care disparities: key perspectives and trends. Health affairs, 24(2), 499-505.

Johnson, C. M. (2015). Gender, empowerment, and cultural preservation at Topu Honis Shelter Home, Timor-Leste. Gender, Place & Culture, 22(10), 1408-1425.

Gao, F., Tilse, C., Wilson, J., Tuckett, A., & Newcombe, P. (2015). Perceptions and employment intentions among aged care nurses and nursing assistants from diverse cultural backgrounds: A qualitative interview study. Journal of aging studies, 35, 111-122.

Holland, K. (2017). Cultural awareness in nursing and health care: an introductory text. Routledge.