Healthcare Services
Please write a Paragraph answering to this discussion below with your opinion. Please include citations and references in case of another source.
The population in todays society is full of diversity and culture. The differences in all the many groups are beautiful and should be appreciated. Unfortunately, because of those many differences it causes difficulty when it comes to matters of health. These difficulties can affect not only patients but the health care workers as well. We must work toward educating ourselves and promoting education for others in order that these challenges can be overcome. We must understand these differences so that we can understand why some of our patients might be resistant to what may be encouraged as a tool to improve health.
Culture and diversity is not limited to what people wear, how they talk or what they eat. There are differences in religious preferences, medications, treatments and even traditions. For example, if a patient passed on while in our care, we might be quick to clean and transfer the body, but in some cultures, the body can not be moved or touched until it has been prayed over and the family has been given time to grieve. We may find this to be odd, but it is our responsibility to respect these cultural beliefs. Doing so enhances the relationship between patients, families and health care providers.
Being health care workers it is important that we identify our own beliefs so that we can understand how this might affect the care we provide to our patients. When providing education to a patient “the nurse, using health education principals, can assist people in achieving their health goals in a way that is consistent with their personal lifestyles, values, and beliefs.’ (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014. p.215). This also means that in order to establish goals in line with the patients beliefs, we need to make ourselves aware and be open to those beliefs.
Some steps we can take to improve the relationship between nurses and patients and create an effective teaching environment is to use language that is all inclusive, prevent yourself and others from making assumptions about the patient and to demonstrate respect to all patients and their beliefs. The health care provider should understand that patients beliefs differ from their own but still maintain respect for those differences. (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014. p.221)
We as health care workers can overcome these differences in beliefs by being open, unbiased and even attending cultural awareness seminars that teach health care workers to be respectful of differing beliefs. While there are many other options that can assist with assisting health care workers with overcoming differing points of view, this is one that I have personally used. I have attended cultural awareness classes and they have been very beneficial, interactive and enlightening.
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The existence of diversity affects different aspects of human interactions primarily due to variations in beliefs and norms of the different cultures. Consequently, such is most likely to have an effect on their approaches to appropriate healthcare…
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