Providing Culturally Competent Nursing Care

Purpose

This week’s graded topics relate to the following Course Outcomes (COs).

• CO 1 – Utilize prior knowledge of theories and principles of nursing and related disciplines to explain expected client behaviors, while differentiating between normal findings, variations, and abnormalities. (PO 1)
• CO 2 – Recognize the influence that developmental stages have on physical, psychosocial, cultural, and spiritual functioning. (PO 1)
• CO 3 – Utilize effective communication when performing a health assessment. (PO 3)

The Assignment

This week you have your choice of three discussion topics! Select the one that most interests you and answer the corresponding questions completely.

Remember to reference both the book or lesson, and an outside scholarly source.

Option #1:

You are the nurse assessing an Orthodox Jewish client with peptic ulcer. The client is strictly religious and refuses to eat the food provided at the health care facility.

1. Describe how you would further assess and provide care for this client.
2. What steps could you take to increase your cultural competence, if you were not familiar with this faith?

Option #2:

You are the nurse caring for a client with Crohn’s disease. The client believes he is being punished by God. The client is spiritually distressed and cannot come to terms with the illness.

1. How would you respond to this client?
2. What are some identified risk factors for spiritual distress, and recommended interventions?

Option #3:

Describe a time in your clinical nursing practice when you have cared for a client of cultural, religious, or spiritual practices different from your own.

1. What were some of the challenges you faced caring for this client?
2. What steps did you take (or could you have taken) to ensure the patient received culturally/spiritually competent care?