ow does cultural competence relate to better patient care? Discuss the ways in which a nurse demonstrates cultural competency in nursing practice

 Topic 4 DQ 1

There are many methods that a nurse can use to gain more cultural awareness, the nurse can research, ask questions, and self-reflect to find what they are assuming vs what they know.  The purpose of gaining cultural awareness is to deliver culturally competent care for the patient. Falkner describes culturally competent care as being flexible in care and plans of care as it relates to the differences between cultures and being aware of medical decisions the patient may make based on their culture (Falkner, 2018). The most important way for a nurse to demonstrate cultural sensitivity to a patient is to simply ask how their individual culture affects their healthcare. We just spent a week going over all the different ways family has changed and how quickly the term is evolving, the patient's culture is evolving with it. It would be very insensitive for a nurse to assume that because their patient is of Mexican heritage that they will have the same beliefs as the last patient of the same heritage. If the nurse does not ask the patient how the healthcare team can respect the patient culture and how the patients' culture will affect their healthcare decisions, the nurse can not culturally sensitive care to that specific patient.

Grand Canyon University (Ed). (2018). Health promotion: Health & wellness across the continuum. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429vn/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/

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