Understanding Cultural Competence for Registered Nurse and Factors Impacting Health of People in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

This assignment focuses on the importance of cultural competence for registered nurses and the impact of various factors on the health of indigenous people in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. It discusses the role of cultural competence in nursing, the impact of language barriers, and the factors affecting the health of indigenous Australians such as education, income, location, and lifestyle.

NURSING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................4
Assignment 1...............................................................................................................................................4
Understanding cultural competence for registered nurse.........................................................................4
Assignment 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Factors impacting health of people in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander...........................................5
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This assignment will focus on impotence of importance of understanding cultural
competence for registered nurse and factors impacting health of people in Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander. The health and wellbeing of the people plays a great role within the lives of
people and besides this, incorporating cultural competence within the nursing practice helps the
nurses to provide effective treatment to people (Wang,and Geng, 2019, p.281). The main aim of
this report is to throw light on two major areas which are importance of cultural competence
within nursing and impact of various factors on health of indigenous people.
MAIN BODY
Assignment 1
Understanding cultural competence for registered nurse
The cultural competence plays a great role within healthcare and thus refers to ability as
well as capability of the health care professionals to exhibit and demonstrate the cultural
competence towards the patient with the diverse values, feelings and beliefs. Being as the nurse,
main focus of them is to offer and provide the skilled care as well as treatment to the patients in
order to cure them. In the nutshell, cultural competence is all about ability of nurses and
healthcare providers to efficiently deliver the healthcare services which meets the social, cultural
as well as linguistic needs of patients. This was a matter of concern within nursing and is
considered as the best practice for providing superior care to people belonging to various
cultures. It is mainly relevant within everyday lives but talking of the nurses, this forms their
core strength for providing the detailed care to most of the vulnerable states. It is highly essential
for the nurses to understand the importance of cultural competence as this helps them to not only
provide effective treatment to the patients but also helps to develop a long-lasting relation with
patients belonging to different cultural backgrounds. For example- when the patients enter the
medical care then they remain highly stressed due to pain and fear (Winsett et. al., 2016, pp.128).
It is highly important for nurses to understand the importance of cultural competence within
nursing as this enables the nurses to comfort and relief the patients. Besides this, it also provides

them the opportunity for providing extremely well care to patients at highest level. It is also
important for nurses to understand the importance of cultural competence as it is highly essential
to respect different cultures as well as beliefs of patients. Supporting the values and perception of
people from different background enables the nurses to design an effective care plan for the
patients (Curtis and et.al.,2017, pp.862).
The cultural competency within nursing is greatly linked to the health and wellbeing of
patients as well as their relatives. The culturally competent healthcare system basically helps to
improve and enhance health outcomes as well as quality of care and effectively contribute to
elimination of the ethnic and racial health disparities. Linguistic aspect is one of the most
important barrier which nurse mainly faces within the healthcare system. When nurses are not
able to understand the different languages in which patients communicate, then it effectively
leads to bad health outcomes of the patients (Al‐Hamdan, Manojlovich and Tanima, 2017,
pp.103). For example- a Chinese patients who is admitted to ICU requests from the nursing staff
to allow his wife to cook therapeutic meal for the patient which consist of special herbs and the
patient wife is the only one who knows how to cook food. The nurses did not understand the
language of Chinese patient and thus leads to sense of fear within the patient. Thus language has
a great impact on the health and wellbeing if patient (Wang,and Geng, 2019, p.281). When
nurses are able to communicate with the patient in the language in which they feel comfortable
then this builds a trust within patients and they begin to share their feelings and emotions with
those nurses. This eventually results in their personal recovery. Thus, in this way cultural
competence plays a great role in delivering a great treatment and cure to the patients. When
nurses respect the belief and values of the patients and their family member then this eventually
increase their interaction with patients. This interaction helps the nurses to understand their
medical history, personal problem they are suffering etc. This in turn helps them to devise
effective treatment strategy for their recovery. Each and every culture have their own preferences
as well as needs thus when nurses provides treatment by respecting their preferences this
ultimately leads to better recovery of patients (Curtis et. al., 2017, pp.862).
Assignment 2
INTRODUCTION

The health as well as well being of the people is greatly affected by the presence of
various factors. These factors are the one which poses a great risk over the health of people. The
main aim of this assignment is to understand the impact of four major factors which are
education, income, lifestyle and location on the health and wellbeing of indigenous people.
Indigenous people are the one who lives in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. These are
basically two islands in Australia situated in states of Queensland. People who live here are
known as indigenous people and thus poverty mainly dominates these two regions.
Factors impacting health of people in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education
Education is this one of the major factor which affects the health and wellbeing of people
to a great extent. Education is a great determining factor which recognizes the way in which
people lead their life. Thus lifestyle of the people are greatly identified and decided by the level
of education. For example- when people are highly educated as well as literate then they remain
aware of the various disorders and diseases and engage in healthy behaviour while the illiterate
people tend to engage in bad health behaviour like smoking, drinking etc. This impacts their
health to a great extent. Thus, education is the critical indicator which shapes the health as well
as wellbeing of people. Higher level of the education is often related with positive health
outcomes like better living, high social trust, good eating habits etc. This eventually results in the
physical as well as psychological wellbeing of people (Tourangeau et. al., 2016, 33).
Talking of the people of Aboriginal Islander, these are basically the indigenous
Australians who are highly disadvantaged in terms of the various aspects. The people living in
this island are not highly educated and most of them are illiterate. The major reason behind this
is poor quality of educational infrastructure in this island. The schools and universities here are
not well developed and people have to travel to the central Australia for seeking education. This
becomes the major reason why most of the indigenous people are illiterate here. Gap between
literacy level of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as well as non-indigenous
Australian’s is basically wide. This low level of literacy in these indigenous people have
ultimately given rise to various bad health outcomes as well as have compelled them to adopt the
bad health behaviour. Along with this, according to the report of people the literacy rate among
people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is 45% low than the non-indigenous people
(Dursun, Cesur and Mocan, 2018, pp.94).

This low rate of the literacy among the indigenous people has affected their health and
wellbeing to a great extent. Due to low rate of education among these people, these people do
have much earning to as well as their income is low. Due to this low income these people are not
able to access the basic necessities like healthy food items, hygienic and distilled water, clean
environment etc. This all affects their health to a great extent. Along with this, due to high level
of illiteracy people living in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are not aware about the various
health disorders. The children due to lack of proper education are not able to understand the
impact of healthy behaviour on their well being. Besides this, because of improper education
people engage in unhealthy behaviour like smoking, drinking etc which impacts their health to
bad extent (Brunello and et.al.,2016, pp.314).
Employment as well as income
The employment ratio basically addresses the number of people who are working and
have some job. Income on the other hand is amount of money which people generally earns as a
result of their job. The employment and income have a great impact on the health and wellbeing
of people and thus largely determines their health status. The employment as well as income
factor are directly linked and associated with each other. Employment basically increases the
household income as well as decreases the economic hardship. For example- when the people are
employed and does job then this eventually brings a great amount of income for their family.
Due to high income, people are able to access the basic necessities and this helps them to lead a
luxurious life eating healthy food and having cleaner environment. Low income or low
evolvement make it hard for the people to arrange money for buying essentials like nutritional
food and this impacts their overall health (Winsett et. al., 2016, pp.128).
The employment ratio in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander as reported in the year
2018 was only 21.3% which is much low than the non-indigenous people where this rate is
around 65.4%. The main reason behind this is low rate of literacy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander and this has led to the low employment ratio among indigenous people. This island lacks
behind in the organizations as well as industries and the employment rate in indigenous
Australians is generally around 40% in comparison to the 57% of the total Australian population.
Due to low employment rate and lack of proper industries and firms in this place, indigenous
people mainly depend on agricultural sector for earning the money. Hunting and fishing are the

only aspect which serves as the mode of income for them. This contributes to high level of
poverty among them. Thus, this dependence does not earn enough money for them in order to
lead healthy life (Greco, Lorgelly and Yamabhai, 2016, pp.83).
This low level of employment as well as income affects the health and well being of
indigenous Australians to a great level. Due to low level of employment, these people do not
have enough income and generally leads to high level of poverty. Due to low level of income,
these people do not have access to healthier resources and this give rise to high risk factors like
heart diseases, cancer, stress etc. Besides this, many indigenous people in Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander are not employed. It has been found that families of indigenous people are often
big and there are many houses where no single member neither male nor female has any job due
to high unemployment. Due to this, they remain under stress and anxiety and this leads to their
habit of drinking and smoking resulting in various diseases like cancer, asthma, liver cancer etc.
Location
Location also plays the most important role in the health and wellbeing of people. The
location is one of the major indicator which largely determines the health status of people. The
place where people lives determines their health outcomes and has been the fundamental social
concern affecting the prevalence of infectious diseases. The locational influences are myriad and
have a central importance in addressing the health questions. The various location factors involve
temperature, altitude, pollutants etc of a specific place. For example- when people live in an area
of location where there is high pollution an frequently changing climate and temperature then
this eventually leads to high health disorders among people like asthma, cancer, heart diseases
etc. On the other hand, the area and location which have optimum temperature as well as is at
low altitude then this results in optimum amount of oxygen available for them which leads to low
amount of health risks (Boland and et.al., 2017, p.20).
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are considered as one of the state of Queensland in
Australia. These two islands are located in the area where the climate frequently changes. The
temperature in these two islands is not stable and changes due to its presence near the ocean. The
climate here mostly has highly level of humidity as well as the temperature remains high. This
warmer temperature often gives rise to risk of illness as well as sometimes death. Besides this,

the humid temperature at these islands generally makes it difficult for people to breathe and thus
has bad impact on their overall health. Besides this, these two islands are generally recognized
by high altitude and due to presence of the ocean nearby, there is high amount of evaporation
which often give rise of high level of pollution in this place.
The location of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affects the health of people to high
extent. Majorly the location of these two islands is considered as highly underdeveloped as well
as unprivileged. Due to improper sanitary facility, this location under the risk of high amount of
garbage as well as waste products thrown here and there. Due to this unhygienic condition,
indigenous people suffers from various disease like Malaria, dengue etc as well as do not get the
access to safe and clean drinking water which impacts their health. Along with this, due to
presence of high humidity as well as high temperature on these islands, people generally suffers
from the disorder of Asthma as it’s becomes difficult for them to breathe. In addition to this, as
these islands are also located at high altitude thus there remains the deficiency of oxygen which
often give rise of hypoxia among them (Al‐Hamdan, Manojlovich and Tanima, 2017, pp.103).
Healthy behaviour as well as lifestyle
This is the another major and most important factor which determines the health status of
people. The lifestyle as well as way of leading life helps in recognizing that why people have or
don not have healthy behaviour. The healthy behaviour is certainly identified by nutritional
eating habits, clean water to drink, absence of illness or disorder etc. These two are directly
linked with each other. Each and every individual have different lifestyle which depends on
various factors like their income, area in which they live, education, etc. When people live a
luxurious and highly affluent lifestyle then they remain engaged within healthy behaviour and
focuses on the nutritious food like fruits consumption, physical activity etc. This eventually helps
them to remain fit and prevent the occurrence of illness and disorders (Curtis et. al., 2017,
pp.862).
The lifestyle as well as the health behaviour of the indigenous people is generally not
highly well-developed. Due to high unemployment as well as illiteracy in Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander, people are not much aware about the healthy behaviour as well as do not have the
proper knowledge about the various treatment and impact of bad eating behaviour upon their

health. Besides this, the income of indigenous people is also low due to their high dependence on
the agricultural sector as well as fishing. Due to this low income, people there do not lead a
luxurious life and because of it, their health as well as behaviour is affected. As these people live
in the unprivileged area as well as do not have the access to basic necessities, they are not able to
eat the nutritional food. Besides this, the indigenous people mainly survive through hunting as
well as fishing and this forms their main lifestyle (Bonnet, Noordsy and Humphreys, 2019,
p.353).
This quality of life led by indigenous people basically impacts their health as well as
well-being. The way these people lead their life is a lot different from non-indigenous people and
thus this forms a major determining factor for their health. Due to the low income as well as their
great dependence on hunting and fishing, the main food of these people is the skin and meat of
animals and fishes on which they survive. This unhygienic eating habit leads to various diseases
as well as illness among these people and thus affects their overall health. Besides this, because
of low income they are not able to afford nutritional and healthy food which then becomes a
great threat for their life (Tourangeau et. al., 2016, 33).
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that cultural competence plays a major role within nursing and
thus it is highly essential for nurses to understand its importance. The cultural importance
basically helps the nurses to understand the impact of different culture and beliefs on the health
and wellbeing of people. Besides this, there are various factors which impact the health and well
being of indigenous people living in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. These factors are
education, income, location and lifestyle which largely determine the health behaviour of these
people.

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