Essay On Cultural Safety

 

You are working a shift at an inner-city Melbourne hospital and you observe the following scenario:

 

 

Your colleague Mary needs to collect bloods from a new patient. Mary reads the admission notes of David, who has come from emergency. David is 58-years old, has identified as Aboriginal and has presented with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.

 

 

Mary makes her way to the ward before the doctor and other medical staff arrive. Mary enters the room is surprised to see a fair-skinned male in the bed, she asks out loud if he's the  Aboriginal man. Mary is looking at the admission notes when she asks how he's feeling. David is presenting as slightly agitated and tells Mary that his sister dropped him off at the hospital, and now he doesn't know if she found a park or has driven home. Mary doesn't respond but instead focuses on the task as she moves closer to the bed to ask David for consent to take blood. He pulls his arm away. Mary tells him not to make things difficult, that she is very busy, and the doctor is coming soon.

 

 

 

As a nurse, while providing care, maintaining  cultural safety is important. It helps to improve patient satisfaction, leading to a positive outcome. The concept of cultural safety is especially important when providing care to a diverse group of people, like caring for the aboriginal patient. The power dynamics among nurses and individuals under their care are at the heart of the culturally safe practice. The foundation of culturally safe practice seems to be a collaborative engagement wherein the disadvantaged 'person' is free to share their view regarding nursing care, though it involves nurses departing from standard practice. Too frequently, the dominant medical system seeks to modify deeply rooted conducts and behaviours with others' cultural psyches. Considering this case study, the care is not culturally appropriate. Hence, as per my understanding, to improve cultural safety for the Aboriginal people, the workplace should focus on educating its nurses. To do so, a weeklong training session can be conducted, where the nurse will be educated about the Aboriginal culture, their past, and present, current problem, and the prevalence of racism against Aboriginal people. This will help a nurse to develop a clear understanding of Aboriginal culture. Moreover, engaging in therapeutic communication with the patient is important. Here, David is a 58 year old but he has fair skin. Hence, the nurse has a disbelieved towards his identity. However, this is wrong; the nurse needs to be always respectful to their patients. Therefore, the nurse needs to be educated about the ways to engage in therapeutic communication in a culturally appropriate way. However, according to me, the most important step will be reflecting on one's culture and understanding their belief. This also includes not having any presumed beliefs regarding the aboriginal people. 

 

A nurse's most significant job from the user's viewpoint is that of the role of patient advocacy. Patients want their caregivers to be empathetic and knowledgeable, as well as to prioritise the wishes and preferences of the sufferers in all healthcare practices. The practitioner should have the ability to explore their own feelings regarding each scenario, recognise that the client's religious views are not a danger or an offence to her own, as well as to comprehend that this is the component of the midwife's obligation to endorse the person's right to self-determination, even though it implies courteously arguing with other carers. Moreover, a nurse needs to understand that Aboriginal people have a high chance to face racism. For example, here, the nurse asks the patient, if he is truly an Aboriginal person. This is culturally appropriate because it indicates the nurse is in disbelief regarding the cultural identity of the patient. Therefore, it indicates a racially biased view. The majority of Australians who were screened for unconscious prejudice had a poor perception of Aboriginal Australians which might result in substantial prejudice. If a nurse links positive concepts with Caucasian face faster than Aboriginal features, there is unconscious bias. If you have an unconscious unfavourable attitude about the Indigenous patient, it will affect all of your conversations and activities with them. Hence, to promote patient advocacy, I can keep the entire team informed, prevent delegation, provide respect and dignity to the patient, and consider their wishes. I will make sure that the patient understands the relevance of care and explain to him that he will always have a right to refusal. 

 

 

Following a proper communication strategy is also important to promote the cultural safety of a patient. I think the essential factor for safe practice is effective communication. Nurses' risk of misinterpreting or disregarding a user's health-related issues if they don't understand how others communicate can have a significant impact on the care quality. Also, communication needs to occur in a culturally appropriate manner. However, according to my understanding, communication did not occur in a proper way in this instance. The nurse talked to David in a loud voice, which is inappropriate. The nurse should have an appropriate tone while communicating with a patient. Also, throughout the time, the nurse looks busy, even though she told the patient "not to make things difficult". This clearly indicates the lack of professionalism of the nurse Mary. Also, it is possible that David and his family might have come from stolen generation. Therefore, while communicating, the nurse needs to show some respect to his culture. Hence, while providing care, the nurse needs to use both verbal and non-verbal approaches to engage in a therapeutic conversation. For example, the nurse must acknowledge the patient's concern. This can be done by active listening. Also, it can reduce the chance of missing any vital information. Moreover, the patient will feel satisfied as their concern gets acknowledged. However, to do so, the nurse needs to use their empathy to relate it to their personal situation. Moreover, the nurse must use non-medical words to communicate with the patient. The nurse can also use appropriate body gestures such as low tone of voice, hand gestures, eye contact, and smiling to make the patient more engaged in the conversation.

 

Also, I think making culturally appropriate partnerships with the patient is important to promote cultural safety. Service users' experience that is described as an understanding, which patient grows from the encounter of health difficulties, from the progression of support and treatment, as well as from the implications of these troubles on his private life, seems to be the foundation of the nurse-patient partnership. A productive relationship involving patients leads to a deep and pleasant connection. It enables you to comprehend your patient's emotions and effectively interact with patients. Throughout nursing, the value of rapport cannot be overstated. It makes it easy to connect with your customers and therefore can help you provide better treatment. As a result, nurses should look for methods to establish rapport with every individual. Rapport, on the other hand, is not really a "one-size-fits-all" instrument. Using the client's communication preferences as well as health status state, one may establish rapport. Also, bbeing patient may be frightening. It is important to take the opportunity to get to understand the patients to make their time more comfortable. Inquire regarding their friends and relatives, as well as their interests and other significant areas of their lives. Also, rapport is easily established by reflecting on the patient's manner, mood, and cadence. As a result, the nurse needs to develop a professional partnership with David, where his decision will be also valued. This will help to improve his satisfaction, leading into positive outcome. Also, the nurse was supposed to show respect and dignity towards David. Hence, by using all of these approaches, and focusing on improving communication, a nurse can build a culturally appropriate partnership with the patient. Such partnership can reduce the chance of biases and help to improve the health outcome.