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Impact of Culture on Health Care - PDF

   

Added on  2021-04-17

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1Assessment task 1: Critical reflection<Student ID><Student Name><University Name>

2First Diary EntryThe healthcare setting is a highly sensitive working environment that needs to be carefullytackled by the involved professionals. My experience as a service provider in the care settingtaught me the relevance of communication and culture and their impact on the quality of careservice. These intangible elements have a significant impact on the service user and theservice provider.Initially, I was unaware of how cultural beliefs and values influence the health of the patients.When I was treating my first patient Jenny, a highly conservative and religious elderlyindividual, I did not understand that culture affects the perception of illness, health, beliefsrelating to the causes of a medical ailment. Due to my lack of knowledge about these culturalaspects, the communication between Jenny and me was very strained. She would not openlytell me about her current state of health and she seemed to be having a hostile attitudetowards me. Since I was the nurse in charge of her, I had to bridge the gap between us. So Iconsulted my senior in the healthcare setting. She had over ten years of experience in the carework setting (Powers, et al., 2015). She made me understand that more than the treatment; itis the healthy communication and the understanding of the culture that helps patients torespond to the treatment. After taking her advice and implementing the same in case of JennyI realized that she positively communicated with me and responded to the treatment that wasprovided to her in the healthcare setting. Level 1 – Descriptive LevelThe main issues that I faced in the care setting were that there was a lack of bond betweenJenny and me due to our different cultural values and beliefs. This difference further strainedthe communication between us. My role was that of a fresher nurse at the time. The mainchallenge was that I failed to understand the cultural perspective of the patient. Due to thecultural issues and poor interaction between the patient and me, she did not respond to thetreatment earlier. My role in the situation was important because I was in charge of Jenny.But since I had to focus on many other patients I did not think of the steps that I could take toimprove her experience in the care facility. Due to my ineffectiveness s a nurse in the initialstage, the consequences for Jenny, me and the overall setting was ineffective. My lack ofunderstanding of her cultural principles made her distant from me and thus she did notcommunicate with me properly (Prince, et al., 2016).

3The action that I took was that I consulted my senior about the patient and our differences. Iwas able to observe a gradual and constructive change in the attitude of Jenny. I tried tobridge the gap by discussing her ailment with her from her cultural perspective. It was apositive move for me because it made Jenny comfortable around me. She was able to shareher experience in the healthcare setting with me (Raghupathi & Raghupathi, 2014). The experience as a new nurse was highly challenging for me because I lacked experienceand the appropriate perspective. But gradually I was able to adapt to the care environment. Iwas able to learn various things in the process thanks to the support of my colleagues, seniorsand the patients.Level 2 – Theory and Knowledge Building After the reflection in Level 1, I have come to the realization that the professionals in thehealthcare setting need to take into account the tangible and non-tangible elements thatinfluence the effectiveness of the care service. After treating Jenny, I realized that I need tobroaden my understanding of the culture so that similar challenges can be effectively dealt inthe future. According to the research paper “Impact of culture on healthcare” by InginiaGenao, for the purpose of effectively and efficiently treating patients, the service providersneed to appreciate the impact of culture on the healthcare setting (Bussey-Jones & Genao,2003). The particular medical encounter with Jenny helped me to understand her culturalvalues and beliefs. It further influenced the medical regimens, patient’s satisfaction level, andultimate healthcare outcome (Ratnanesan, et al., 2014). After I consulted with my senior about the issue, I was unsure whether my changed attitudewith Jenny would encourage her to open up to me or not. But I came to realize that thehealthcare service providers need to take the initiative to make the patients and other serviceusers comfortable in the care facility. As per “Culture as a variable in health research:perspectives and caveats” by Hana Al-Bannay, the cultural values and principles affect theattitude and behaviour of people. It even has a significant impact on the healthcare treatmentthat people opt to have (Al-Bannay et al., 2013). I believe in the future, I must try to understand more cultural values and beliefs of people sothat the patients that I will serve can be comfortable. Today, I have gained substantialexperience in the care setting which has helped me to improve my care approach. Previously,I was only guided by the medical treatment model but now I have realized that along with the

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