Raymond Williams (Hutchison, 2011) said “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” (p. 247). When I thought of culture, I used to picture food, festivities, clothes and country. Just like the nurse, I thought that if learned about one culture, I understood everybody in that culture. But as I started expanding my knowledge the meaning of culture started becoming harder to define. Different subjects seemed to have different definitions of what culture is. The idea expanded until it was not just a check list but “a set of common understandings, manifest in act and artifact. It is in two places at once: inside somebody’s head as understandings and in the external environment as act and artifact” (Hutchison, 2011, p. 246). The definition above explains why social workers need to learn cultural humility. It clarifies that because culture is both behavior and act, it is interpreted differently by different people. In other words, two people can be from the same exact place and still have different cultures.
In the “Cultural Humility: People, Principles, and Practices” (2012) documentary, an example of an African American nurse who thought of herself as culturally competent was given. The nurse was taking care of a Latino patient who recently had surgery. The patient’s doctor commented to the nurse that the patient seems to be in considerable pain but the nurse discounted his comment. She told the doctor, in her Cross Cultural Medicine
While his coworkers constructed his designs, what hobby did Bernini pursue? Answer Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Writing plays and designing stage sets Writing plays and designing stage sets
The increasing population of immigrants in the United States has contributed to health disparities in the health care system. Cultural competence can remove health disparities by eliminating personal biases, and treating every person with respect. Simply recognizing and accepting different cultures is not enough, one must be able to consistently recognize and understand the differences in order to be culturally competent. Knowledge and culturally competent practices are a must for nurses to deliver quality care in our rapidly changing multicultural world (Edelman, 2014 p. 25).
Cultural competency is necessary to provide effective patient-centered care, improve patient outcome, and reduce healthcare disparity. When healthcare providers approach patient care entirely from their own cultural perspectives and beliefs, their decisions and behaviors can negatively impact patient care. Evaluating and acknowledging my own beliefs, values, biases, and prejudices allows me, as a healthcare professional, to better understand patients’ cultural needs and values.
In pages one through twenty-one in the novel Cultural Intelligence: A Guide to Working With People from Other Cultures, by Brooks Peterson, the author introduces us to the basis and idea of culture, and what it truly is. He describes how we as individuals see others and how we tend to acknowledge their distinct cultivations. Part of living in America means coming across individuals who live a different lifestyle than we may live. We are a society filled with people from all over the world. Therefore, it is crucial that we as Americans and as people understand the significance and idea of what culture really is and how it affects different individuals.
The nurse also recognizes that health care is provided to culturally diverse populations in this country and in all parts of the world. In providing care, the nurse should avoid imposition of the nurse’s own cultural values
Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García differentiate cultural humility and cultural competence based upon the longevity involved in the pursuit of expertise in both concepts. They insinuate that cultural competence is based primarily on facts that generalize the behaviors of minorities and low-income populations receiving health care services. On the contrary, cultural humility places more importance on the provider’s personal awareness of their response to the individual needs of patients without constricting guidelines that overlook challenges involved in meeting their health concerns. Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García mentioned that there is not an adequate amount of medical training aimed towards exposure to diverse populations.
Being culturally competent and delivering culturally sensitive care is imperative for anyone in the medical profession. It is important because of the many diversities faced every day in the health care field. However, simply understanding the fact that there are so many health disparities is not enough. In order to reach out and effectively care for patients of different backgrounds and cultures one must understand the importance of cultural competency. In order to be culturally competent, a nurse must have knowledge of the different cultures, and
As the population of the United States continues to become more diverse, healthcare providers should effectively communicate with each patient regardless of their culture, nationality, religion or socioeconomic status. Nurses and other providers should be delivering patient centered care that is culturally competent. “Culture also includes the integrated pattern of thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions associated, wholly or partially, with racial, ethnic, or linguistic groups, as well as with religious, spiritual, biological, geographical, or sociological characteristics” (Lamb, 2014, p. 132). Nurses are caring for a wide variety of culturally diverse
When a nurse or health care provider is knowledgeable about their own beliefs and values, this makes it more noticeable when they are displaying bias towards a different culture (Harkreader, 2007). Some providers may exhibit bias and not be aware that they are acting in such a manner, seeking cultural competence can help providers catch themselves before they behave that way. Culturally competent health care providers possess “five attributes: awareness, sensitivity, recognition, respect, and the ability to compromise” (Harkreader, 2007, p. 47). Organizations that practice cultural competence care can improve the health, safety and quality of care for patients, which is a top priority for
The identities that each person possesses is influenced according to their attitudes, values and beliefs embedded in their culture. When people hear the word cult, the images of satan worshipping, animal sacrifices and evil, pagan rituals automatically come to mind. However, in reality, the majority of cults do not involve these things and are in fact simply a religious system with alternate beliefs. The word though refers to an unorthodox sect whose members distort the original doctrines of the religion. Heaven’s Gate is a cult that is centred in California, founded by Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in 1993. They are a UFO based ‘destructive doomsday’ cult who believed that evil space aliens called ‘Luciferians’ had kept
Culture is a huge part of our lives and our identity. It shapes and influences who we become and who we are along with other aspects. We all grew up differently, and there are various factors that influence our upbringing that shape what we think of others and how we treat them. This is why it is important to examine not only others’ culture, but also most importantly, we have to start with ourselves and reflect, as this will benefit us especially in the field of social work.
In the realm of Christianity there are several denominations where their doctrinal beliefs and traditions are followed religiously. Through the story of the “Traditions of the Elders” in Mark 7, this paper focuses on the origin of culture and the false perception it gives that is was created by God. Although culture religious traditions can have association with God, culture and religious traditions are not are not from God and can prevent people from doing what God wants
The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.
Culture can be defined in many ways due to the fact that everyone can have their own distinct and traditional beliefs and values. “ Culture is fluid, it is not a static entity which one takes out of the box on occasion. It is with us daily” (Cultural Handout). Someone’s culture is set as the characteristics of the group practices in language, religion, types of food, social traits and habits, and the distinct arts and music. There are a variety of different cultures for example, Western Culture, Eastern Culture, Latin Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and African Culture. All of these different cultures have their own ideas, values, and individualism, laws that are implied, civil rights, and even technology. In our, “ Culture Handout” culture is defined as the tool of the mind, “ it is an individual’s way seeing and interacting within the world. It encompasses one’s values systems, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around them. Race, socio-economic class gender, sexual orientation, ability, geographic location, age, religion language, etc. all impact the formation of culture, but these various context are not culture” (Cultural Handout).
Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1962) identify over 150 scientific definitions of the concept of culture. Indeed, many authors have tried to define culture and this is why there are so many definitions and that a unique one is hard to find. First of all, Kroeber and Kluckholn (1952) assume that culture is a suite of patterns, implicit and explicit, “of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts” (p.47). Later, Hofstede adds that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (Hofstede, 1991, p.51). This definition is the most widely accepted one amongst practitioners. For Winthrop (1991), culture is the distinctive models of thoughts, actions and values that composed members of a society or a social group. In other words,