Impact of Cultural Identity on Health and Nursing Practice

This essay delves into the critical role of cultural identity in healthcare, emphasizing its profound influence on individuals' health perceptions, behaviors, and access to care. The author highlights the importance of nurses understanding and respecting patients' cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and preferences to foster trust, improve communication, and enhance patient satisfaction. The essay explores how cultural identity shapes health-seeking behaviors, beliefs about illness, and experiences of care, advocating for culturally competent practices that consider patients' autonomy and dignity. It emphasizes that nurses' cultural awareness and sensitivity are essential for delivering high-quality care, leading to better health outcomes and increased patient engagement in the care process. The essay concludes by underscoring the need for nurses to develop cultural knowledge and sensitivity to provide care that respects patients' cultural needs and preferences.

Running head: CULTURAL IDENTITY
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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CULTURAL IDENTITY
Introduction:
Cultural identity can be defined as the identity or feeling of an individual in belonging to
a group. It can be explained as the part of the self perception as well as self-conception of a
person and is also related with the nationality, religion, and ethnicity, social class as well as
generation and even locality of any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture. Studies
have found that cultural identity is indeed an important contributor to the well-being of an
individual. I have realized that identifying with a particular culture gives every individual a
feeling of belonging as well as the security. It also helps in providing people with access to
different social networks which provide support and even shared values and aspirations. This
assignment will show the importance of nurses in knowing about cultural identity influences the
health of individuals and communities
Importance of nurses in knowing about the ways cultural identity influences the health of
individuals and communities:
I have realized that cultural identity of the people is associated with their self-respect and
self-esteem. People associate their culture as an important aspect of their being and existence and
any situations that threaten their cultural identity, disappoints or affects the individuals both
mentally as well as emotionally. An individual considers their cultural identity as a source of
pride and pleasure and any threats to their cultural beliefs are rejected by the people (Holland
2017).
Present day studies have found an intricate association between cultural identity of people
and their access to healthcare services. It has been seen that when individuals feel that their
cultural identity is not respected or that their culture preferences and inhibitions in the healthcare

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services are not supported or taken in considerations, their intentions to get those healthcare
services reduces remarkably. A very well known example can be noticed for the culturally
different community of the Aboriginals. It has been seen that they are already having a huge gap
in health status between the indigenous and that of the non-indigenous people. One of the cause
as reported in several policy researches is that they are receiving culturally incompetent care
from the healthcare providers that are affecting their cultural identity (Jeffrey 2015).
Discrimination and stigmatization had been also reported by the aboriginal people when they had
tried to access the western healthcare services. Therefore, present day policies are keen on
implementing aboriginal healthcare workers so that they can communicate effectively with them
and accordingly recognize the needs of the people and provide them services that align with their
cultural identity.
I have realized that when nurses are able to understand the importance of cultural identity
to a person, they will be better equipped with better cultural knowledge, cultural awareness as
well as cultural sensitivity. They would be able to better respect the cultural identity of persons.
In this way, they can satisfy patients with care services that adhere to their cultural traditions and
preferences without undertaking any actions that affect their self-respect and self-esteem
(DelVecchio et al. 2015). A culturally competent care service, which aligns with the cultural
identity of the patients, makes the patients feel that their autonomy and dignity are respected.
Studies have found that when autonomy and dignity of the patients are respected, their response
to the healthcare services increases along with their compliance. This in turn has positive health
outcomes of the people making them feel comfortable in the presence of the healthcare
professional (White et al. 2018).

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I have understood that when nurses respect the cultural identity of the patients, they are
able to develop a strong rapport with the patient based on trust and mutual respect. When
patients start trusting the professionals, they reveal important information to the professionals
without the fear if being judged. Revealing all important information by the patient ultimately
help the nurses in understanding the entire scenario along with many contributing factors of the
disorder. These help them in creating care plans that meet every needs and requirements of the
patients. Therefore, in an indirect way, when nurses respect the cultural identity of the patients,
patients are able to become more participative in the care process (Garneau et al. 2015). If nurses
can encourage patients to become active partners in the decision-making and the care-planning
process, their adherence with the treatment increases. They are also seen to feel empowered as
they can successfully develop self coping and self-management attributes with the help of the
nurses. Therefore, when nurses can respect the cultural identity of the patients, it results in better
outcomes on their health with higher degree of patient satisfaction (Bennett 2017).
The influence of culture on health is humungous. I have found that cultural identity of an
individual can affect their perceptions of health, illness and death as well as beliefs about the
causes of disorders. Culture is also seen to design the approach of an individual towards seek of
healthcare assistance as well as the ways by which illness and pain are expressed and
experienced by the people (Vidaeff et al. 2015). Culture also shapes the help-seeking behavior of
people, where they would seek help, the types of treatments they would prefer. Therefore, it is
indeed important for the nurses to be well aware of the concept of cultural identity and how it
shapes the health and health seeking behaviors of the people. Therefore, being aware of the
importance of cultural identity to people and being culturally competent can help nurses in

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providing high quality care (Repo et al. 2017). Culturally competent care helps in increasing
patient satisfaction.
Conclusion:
Therefore, I have realized that cultural identity is an important aspect of every individual
that is correlated with their existence. It is associated with their pride, self-esteem and self-
respect. Therefore, it is extremely important for the nurses in ensuring that they respect the
cultural identity of the persons to make them more included in the care services. When patients
see that their cultural identity is neither judged nor discriminated and that the nurses work
according to their cultural preferences and inhibitions, they feel respected. Culturally
competency care also help in respecting the autonomy and dignity of the patients. These make
the patients feel respected and cared. Hence, as a nursing professional, my main aim would be to
develop cultural awareness and cultural knowledge. I also need to develop cultural sensitivity. In
this way, I will be able to pay respect to their cultural needs of the patients and accordingly
design care plans that satisfy patients and result in positive health outcomes.

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