Influence of Culture and Social Determinants on Healthcare Practice

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The concept of cultural safety is concerned with the power relationship between the
patients and the nurses. It is basically about accepting and valuing the culture and beliefs of
others. It has been included in the nursing code of conducts in order to involve the nurses in
the practices of culturally safe and appropriate care to the patients irrespective of their
cultures and beliefs. Cultural beliefs affect the healthcare delivery process. In this reflective
essay, the influence of community, culture and in healthcare practice will be thoroughly
discussed. Also, the distribution of various healthcare resources related to healthcare need
and concepts of health and wellbeing will be evaluated in the paper. It has been recognized in
many surveys and studies that due to globalization, the culture of nursing workforce is
affected and here, in the paper, the position of globalization on nursing workforce will be
justified with proper evidence and literature support. In the context of equity and cultural
safety, the social as well as ethnical wellbeing plays an important role and hence, the concept
of indigeneity and lifestyle of different cultural groups will be analyzed in this regard.
Exploring different health services and issues, the paper will finally conclude summarizing
all the important points found.
Culture is a particular pattern of ideas shared by a particular people of the society. The
diversity of religion and culture within the world’s population brings several challenges for
the healthcare providers. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that the
healthcare providers of Australia are highly concerned regarding the life expectancy rate of
all the Australians. However, the challenge for the healthcare professionals is in
understanding the religious beliefs of any patients while making any vital clinical decision.
Australia is known as one of the countries with largest number of immigrants and statistics
report found that 24% of Australians are the immigrants (Butler-Henderson, Dimitropoulos,
Katte, Mcpherson & Bennett, 2018). Also, there are 200 types of different cultures and
languages that exist in the diversified community of Australia. The gap in culture causes

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multiple barriers in the healthcare system (Schultz, Abbott, Yamaguchi & Cairney, 2018).
According to some literatures, communication barrier is one of the most obvious effects of
culture on the health outcome of the Australians. Even, the communication can cause wrong
diagnosis and treatment as well as reduce the probability of required follow-ups due to not
understanding the language. Again, while taking crucial decisions in the clinical settings
cultural beliefs might influence. The Australian health surveys revealed that cultural
differences and food choices might contribute to the poor nutritional status of some specific
group of people which indicates poor health outcome. Malnutrition or risk of malnourishment
is 20-30%, found in the older adults and 40% of them require hospital settings. Contributing
factors to poor nutrient intake causes different types of chronic diseases that include
dementia, depression, impaired vision and many others. Also, social influences, such as
isolation from the community involvement, loneliness, poverty and many other factors affect
the mental wellbeing which causes physical issues as well. Literatures from different authors
mentioned that poor mental condition may cause digestion issue and sleeping disturbance
which directly affects the physical wellbeing.
Healthcare system in developed countries like Australia is facing challenge of dealing
with different social structures and aging population. Different studies examined that access
to healthcare resources due to geographical distance is critical. Studies also indicated that
rural residents often encounter barriers of accessing healthcare resources. Transportation
barrier can be a cause in this regard. Also, some patients might not be that much educated
about different care sites and healthcare facilities available in the market. In a survey of
cityMD, conducted in the year 2017, it has been found that a large number of patients do not
know about the availability of different healthcare facilities in their nearby areas (Young &
Guo, 2016). Also, due to lack of opportunities and education, they cannot access the
healthcare sites available online. The older adults are more likely to suffer from such issues