A Cultural Assessment of Indian Culture in a Nursing Context

This essay offers a detailed cultural assessment of Indian culture within a nursing context. It begins by defining cultural assessment and its significance in healthcare, particularly for nurses interacting with patients from diverse backgrounds. The essay then focuses on Indian culture, exploring its historical influences, religious beliefs (such as the concept of karma), dietary practices (including vegetarianism and Ayurvedic principles), and the potential language barriers nurses may encounter. Strategies for overcoming these barriers, such as using translators, visual aids, and clear communication, are discussed. The essay also highlights significant health issues prevalent in Indian culture, specifically ischemic heart disease and stroke, emphasizing their causes and the need for preventative measures like tobacco control and healthy eating habits. The analysis underscores the importance of cultural competence in nursing to provide effective and sensitive care.

Running head: CULTURAL ASSESSMENT OF INDIAN CULTURE 1
Cultural Assessment of Indian Culture
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Cultural Assessment of Indian Culture
Abstract
In this paper, the essence of cultural assessment especially in the field of nursing will
be discussed in detailed by first, giving a brief background of cultural assessment and its role
in the field of nursing. One culture (Indian culture) will then be chosen and assessment done
by defining the culture regarding the types of food, health, religious beliefs. The possible
barriers that nurses working in this culture are likely to face will be highlighted and the
appropriate measures to address those barriers discussed in detail. The major health issues in
the chosen culture will be highlighted and discussed in detailed before conclusion is made.
Background
Cultural assessment is the systematic process of understanding the deeply rooted
values, norms and other existing characteristics of a particular culture (Giger, 2016). In the
cultural assessment process, the culture's various components such as tradition, incentives,
values, and environment are reviewed. Cultural assessment is of great significance in the field
of nursing. This is so because nurses interact with and provide care to patients from different
cultural backgrounds. This means that nurses must be equipped with cultural competent skills
to be able to effectively communicate with these patients and provide the necessary care.
However, over the years cultural differences have proved to be a great challenge for nurses in
carrying out their duties because most of the nurses are not culturally competent. Since
cultural assessment provides a detailed understanding of cultural values and norms, this paper
seeks to demonstrate how nurses can use cultural assessment to gain insights of different
cultures, for example, Indian culture and avoid cultural barriers when providing adequate care
to patients.
Body

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Definition of the chosen culture
The Indian culture has been shaped and influenced by a history that is a thousand
years old (Neilly et al., 2019). This culture is an amalgamation of a thousand unique and
distinct cultures of all the communities and religions that are present in that country. Even
though India’s dance, languages, food, and religious characteristics differ from place to place
within the country, some elements unite these unique and distinct cultures. For example, the
health beliefs of health in both Buddhism and Hinduism are derived from the principle of
karma which is the law of cause and effect (Patel & Agius, 2017). Buddhism and Hinduism
believe that every action, word or thought accumulates to karma which can affect the present
and future lives of people including health and wellbeing. This means that healthcare
providers should be aware that in India, decision-making regarding healthcare can be affected
by a strong belief in karma. Regarding food, the majority of Hindus follow a vegetarian diet
and don’t eat pork or beef. Even though rules and decisions for fasting are not set, fasting is
very common among the Hindus. Also, most Hindus follow the practices of Ayurvedic diet
which classifies foods as either cold or hot not based on temperature but based on the taste of
those foods which can either positively or negatively affect the health of a person (Shen,
2015) For example, based on the Ayurvedic diet system, food is said to be cold when it tastes
either bitter or sweet while hot foods are generally salty. Moreover, most Hindus avoid onion
because its properties disturb their spiritual practices, for example, meditation (Tankebe,
Reisig & Wang, 2016). When it comes to religious beliefs, there are many religions in India,
for example, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism which are all founded on the
concept of karma that advocates no violence. The most well-known proponent of this concept
Mahatma Gandhi who brought India together through civil disobedience (Giger, 2016).
Today, the concept of karma forms an important aspect of native Indian faiths. Aside from

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that, foreign religions such as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity have found shelter in India
over the years.
Significance of topic
In working with patients from different cultures, registered nurses are likely to face
language barriers. However, various ways that nurses can use to avoid such language barriers
exist. For example, a nurse can get a translator who understands and is well informed about
the Indian language. This will eliminate the communication barriers because the message that
a nurse wants to communicate to the patients will be done through the translator who will
then communicate to the patients effectively in the language they understand. Also, the nurse
can “ask the patients under his care to be parrots”. Asking patients to be parrots entails a
nurse communicating the message to the patients effectively and then asking the patients to
parrot back what they understand about the message. According to (Neilly et al., 2019)
medical memory helps to overcome communication challenges. Therefore, asking patients to
memorize and parrot back will enable the nurse to uncover what the patients missed or
misinterpreted in the message communicated and communicate the message again for
patients to understand. Moreover, the nurse can be visual when dealing with patients.
According to (Patel & Agius, 2017) 90% of all information transmitted to the brain is visual.
Therefore using visual prompts such as verbal prompts that involve giving the patients verbal
cue, for example, giving the patients drugs and showing them to direct those drugs in the
mouth. This will enable patients to remember what to do with drugs whenever they are given
without necessarily being communicated by anyone which improves patient compliance.
Also, a nurse can avoid language barriers by using easy to understand the language when
caring with patients. This is so because medical terms are not easy to understand especially
for patients without any basic medical knowledge. Therefore, using clear and simple

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language will help patients understand the message being communicated to them by the
nurse.
Significant health issues in Indian Culture
The two most significant health issues in Indian culture are stroke and ischemic heart
disease which are all cardiovascular diseases. Ischemic heart disease is a heart problem that
results when the blood vessels taking blood to and from the heart narrow impairing the
function of the heart (Shen, 2015). On the other hand, stroke results when blood vessels that
take blood to the brain are blocked or burst (Shen, 2015). In India, stroke and ischemic heart
disease have developed to be the leading causes of death-causing 80% of all the CVD deaths
in the country (Tankebe, Reisig & Wang, 2016). Between 2001 and 2003, stroke and
ischemic heart disease led to 17% of total deaths in India (Tankebe, Reisig & Wang, 2016).
Between 2010 and 21013, the percentage of deaths caused increased to 23% (Neilly et al.,
2019) These statistics show that stroke and ischemic heart disease are epidemics in India. The
progression of these two diseases is characterized by excessive tobacco use, the reversal of
socioeconomic gradients, and low intake of fruits and vegetables especially among the
Indians from lower socioeconomic status. Also, inadequate optimal therapy about these
conditions especially among the people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds which leads
to poorer outcomes. From the description of the two health issues above and their main
causes in India, it’s evident that the priorities for promoting health in this country should first
focus in sensitizing people about the dangers of tobacco use and the essence of practicing
healthy eating habits. The leading cause of ischemic heart disease and stroke in India are
tobacco use and poor eating habits. This means that most Indians are not informed about the
health effects of tobacco and poor dieting. Therefore, sensitizing people especially from
lower socio-economic status about the health effects of tobacco use and poor eating habits

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will help reduce the risk factors of ischemic heart disease and stroke which are the leading
cause of death in India.
Summary paragraph
Cultural assessment is the systematic process of understanding the deeply rooted
values, norms and other existing characteristics of a particular culture. Cultural assessment is
of great significance in the field of nursing because it equips nurses with cultural competent
skills that will enable them to interact with and provide care to patients from different cultural
backgrounds, for example, patients from Indian culture. The Indian culture is an
amalgamation of a thousand unique and distinct cultures of all the communities and religions
that are present in that country. Some elements unite these unique and distinct cultures. For
example, the health beliefs of health in both Buddhism and Hinduism are derived from the
principle of karma which is the law of cause and effect. In working with patients from
different cultures, registered nurses are likely to face language barriers. Nurses can avoid
these barriers by getting a translator who understands and is well informed about the Indian
language. The two most significant health issues in Indian culture are stroke and ischemic
heart disease which are all cardiovascular diseases. Excessive tobacco use and poor eating
habits are the main causes of these two health issues. Therefore, sensitizing people especially
from lower socio-economic status about the health effects of tobacco use and poor eating
habits will help reduce the risk factors of ischemic heart disease and stroke.

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Reference
Giger, J. N. (2016). Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Neilly, C. H., Rader, A., Zielinski, S., Wehbe-Alamah, H., & Murray-Wright, M. (2019).
Using Transcultural Nursing Education to Increase Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural
Assessment Documentation by Staff in an In-Home Chronic Disease Self-
Management Program. Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice, 12(1), 16-23.
Patel, M., & Agius, S. (2017). Cross-cultural comparisons of assessment of clinical
performance.
Shen, Z. (2015). Cultural competence models and cultural competence assessment
instruments in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(3),
308-321.

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Tankebe, J., Reisig, M. D., & Wang, X. (2016). A multidimensional model of police
legitimacy: A cross-cultural assessment. Law and Human Behavior, 40(1), 11.