Introduction
Cultural competence in nursing is the knowledge, skills, and attitude nurses must have to care for people and provide the best possible care. The focus is on providing patient-centered care that promotes exceptional care through cultural awareness (Sharifi et al., 2019). Cultural competence involves more than just sensitivity or cultural knowledge. It improves nurses’ effectiveness by enhancing their skills and caring for patients.
Building Nursing Cultural Competence
The first building block of cultural competence is awareness. Knowledge of different cultures will help nurses find the right approach to patients. The next element that emerges from the previous one is attitude. Nurses who understand different cultural attitudes can communicate more effectively with patients and their families (Markey & Okantey, 2019).
Understanding various cultural attitudes can help nurses connect with their patients. Skills and abilities are undoubtedly integral to nursing (Papadopoulos, 2018). These behaviors may include adapting their communication style to support patient understanding, such as working with an interpreter or using body language to enhance understanding.
Knowledge can refer to learning about a group’s cultural beliefs and practices. However, it can also refer to understanding how different diseases and medications affect people of different races or ethnicities. Providing culturally competent patient care involves being aware of people’s different needs. (Tang et al., 2019). A fifth building block can be sensitivity. Nurses possessing this quality can be more tolerant of cultural differences and mitigate misunderstandings.
Conclusion
Thus, these building elements have a direct impact on the cultural competence of the nurse. Depending on their culture, they develop essential qualities such as understanding, empathy, and a personalized patient approach. For this reason, cultural competence disposes the patient to the nurse to the greatest extent.
I will undoubtedly use these building blocks of cultural competence in my nursing practice. It is they who will help me become a highly skilled worker. I plan to actively study the characteristics of each culture to find a personalized approach. I need to develop my stress tolerance to be empathetic and understanding.
References
Markey, K., & Okantey, C. (2019). Nurturing cultural competence in nurse education through a values-based learning approach. Nurse education in practice, 38, 153-156. Web.
Papadopoulos, I. (2018). Culturally competent compassion. Oxon: Routledge.
Sharifi, N., Adib-Hajbaghery, M., & Najafi, M. (2019). Cultural competence in nursing: A concept analysis. International journal of nursing studies, 99. Web.
Tang, C., Tian, B., Zhang, X., Zhang, K., Xiao, X., Simoni, J. M., & Wang, H. (2019). The influence of cultural competence of nurses on patient satisfaction and the mediating effect of patient trust. Journal of advanced nursing, 75(4), 749-759. Web.