Achieving Cultural Competence in Nursing

Question: Discuss about theAchieving Cultural Competence in Nursing. Answer: Introduction Australia is a plural society that is made up of people from diverse cultural and linguistic diversities. The diversity of the nation is demonstrated by the fact that it has more people who speak than 500 indigenous languages. Therefore, in order to obtain equity, the country should have brilliant strategies in its healthcare system. Over the years, the country has been known to be having a skewed healthcare system that mainly benefits the privileged non-indigenous communities at the expense of the social and economically-deprived indigenous groups like the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. This is an unfortunate scenario that should be rectified. As a country, Australia should be in a position of delivering a culturally-competent healthcare to appeal to, accommodate and meet the needs of all the diverse cultural groups within its jurisdiction (Fredericks, Lee, Adams Mahoney 2015, p. 371). This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the ideology of cultural competen ce in healthcare in Australia. It does this by analyzing the role of healthcare providers, government, and community organizations in the delivery of cultural competent healthcare, barriers, and opportunities to explore in the establishment of a culturally competent healthcare nation and goes ahead to present a convincing argument to a practitioner attending to a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. Cultural Competence in Healthcare Australia is a seriously diverse nation with numerous ethnic groups. Meaning, there are a large number of people speaking different languages as well as practicing cultural traditions unique, but essential to them as a people. These populations are distributed both within states, territories, urban centers and remote rural areas. Therefore, for the country to attain equality in healthcare, the service delivery should be designed to be culturally competent. A culturally competent healthcare system is characterized by many factors (Parker Milroy 2014, p. 31). Most importantly, it recognizes the diverse nature of the society which of course consists of people from different cultural backgrounds. The acknowledgement that the society is composed of diverse populations is a major milestone in the accomplishment of cultural competent healthcare. Each community has its own uniqueness that must be considered when designing the healthcare framework. The first step in the realization of a cultural competent healthcare is the training of healthcare providers. After making the decision to create a cultural competence in healthcare, the government should collaborate with the education and healthcare sector to provide a cultural sensitive healthcare education to the healthcare practitioners. This can help in bringing up a caliber of diverse professionals who are aware of the cultural plurality of the nation and can dedicate their time to fit into the multicultural job market and be able to serve the patients regardless of their cultural background (Doolan, et al 2015, p. 234). Knowledge on cultural diversity is a paramount resource to the healthcare providers because it provides them with an ample opportunity to know that all cultural traditions are important and should be respected. Only when a patient feels that their cultural values are respected can they accept and embrace the healthcare services provided to them at any given tim e. This is the strategy that should be adopted by a healthcare practitioner serving a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. Another important consideration to make regarding the delivery of cultural competence healthcare is the involvement of the local communities in healthcare provision. Since the government has a primary responsibility to deliver quality healthcare to its citizens, better outcomes can be achieved if smart decisions are made. One such decision should be the collaboration of healthcare sector with the local cultural community-based organizations which are also concerned with healthcare delivery to their respective community members. When this happens, culturally-acceptable and responsive healthcare services can be rendered. For example, when serving the indigenous groups like the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people, the local community organizations such as the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization (NACCHO) should be actively involved (Kirmayer 2012, p. 3). This is commendable because NACCHO uses local professionals who have a deeper understanding of t he cultural traditions of the community hence better placed to deliver cultural competent healthcare to the indigenous communities (Almutairi, McCarthy Gardner 2014, p. 271). It should be adopted by a healthcare practitioner serving a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. The successes in the delivery of cultural competent healthcare should be credited to the presence of competent leadership. Meaning, without a competent leadership structure, quality healthcare services cannot be rendered to the satisfaction of the patients. Competent leadership is necessary in cultural competent healthcare delivery because it can benefit it in many ways (Grant, et al 2012, p. 353). Apart from promoting the spirit of commitment, it instills the value of accountability and transparency in the healthcare providers. An accountable healthcare system can be of great value to the society because it makes the healthcare professionals to discharge their duties much responsibly than they would do if no such requirements are put in place (Hunt, et al 2015, p. 466). Accountability is a key element of cultural competence in healthcare because it makes the healthcare providers to be transparent in their work and always remain committed to ensuring that the services provided are cu lturally-acceptable and beneficial to the target beneficiaries. As a student, I know for certain that I have a heavy task ahead of me. Developing my career as a professional nurse is a challenging endeavor that requires a lot of commitments from my side. I need to carry out a self-assessment to reflect on my strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats because this will help me to soldier on and eventually accomplish my goal and emerge as a successful professional who can be relied upon to deliver quality and culturally competent healthcare services to those who need it (McDermott, et al 2015, p. 1). By doing so, I would be doing a great job by contributing towards the realization of a disease-free society in which everyone is willing to live and help in delivering quality healthcare to a diverse population including a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. One of the challenges I have to overcome is to fit in a diverse society in which I operate. as a professional, I should be ready to serve in any part of the country. My acceptance and readiness to move across the country will grant me an ample opportunity to serve people from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, to do so, I need to be a flexible professional who respects, acknowledged, and tolerates other peoples culture (Truon, Paradies Priest 2014, p. 1). This is what I need to do in order to contribute towards the realization of a cultural competence healthcare. Even if I should be operating under a stringent guidance of specified standards, I can only succeed if I am convinced that I should have a positive attitude towards other cultural traditions. As a white student, I have sets of beliefs, values and traditions with which I identify. However, this does not mean that I am more important than other people (Donato Segal 2013, p. 238). Instead, I should consider myself privileged for getting a chance to train as a medic. I have managed to reach this point, not only because of my personal efforts, but due to support from my parents, tutors, friends, and the community at large (Russell 2013, p. 2). Therefore, to give back to the community, I need to accept to be a culturally-conscious professional who understands that Australia is a diverse nation with people from different cultural backgrounds. At the same time, I should use my privilege to serve everyone without considering their cultural background. Meaning, I would have to treat everyone with the dignity that they deserve (Renzaho, et al 2013, p. 2). This will enable me to be an ideal professional who can positively contribute towards the establishment of cultural competence i n healthcare for the benefit of diverse cultural groups in the society and greatly contribute towards satisfying the needs of diverse patients such as a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. Effective healthcare delivery cannot be achieved without the contribution of individual professionals. The professionals have an invaluable contribution to make towards the creation of a cultural competence in healthcare. Nonetheless, to achieve this, the professional needs to be thoroughly trained and provided with education on cultural diversities in the society. A knowledgeable professional can be of great help because of the ability to analyze the situation before making reasonably justifiable decisions to help in improving the culture of tolerance in healthcare delivery (Donato Segal 2013, p. 238). Such mechanisms can play a significant role in satisfying the diverse needs of patients including a non-English speaking female immigrant who is recently married and practices a different religion. How to Improve Cultural Competence in Healthcare Despite taking deliberate measures to address the issue of cultural competence in healthcare, desired results cannot be attained because of many barriers: inadequate resources, lack of enough experts to deliver cultural competent healthcare, and limited active community participation in the delivery of culturally competent healthcare in the country. Nevertheless, cultural competence in healthcare can be a reality if the following measures are taken. First, the government should consider collaborating with the community organizations to ensure that appropriate healthcare programs are designed and provided to each community whenever necessary (Brown, et al 2015, p. 125). To do this, adequate resources should be set aside to support the operation of the organizations. This strategy is commendable because it creates platform for the locals to be actively involved in major decision making processes on matters regarding their health. At the same time, such organizations are managed by loca l professionals who are accepted because of their understanding of the local cultural traditions (Mitrou, et al 2014, p. 1). Besides, there should adequate training of individuals on the significance of cultural diversity in the country. The government should bank on education because it can be a better tool in creating awareness to individual Australians as well as the other healthcare professionals who are entrusted with the delivery of cultural competence in healthcare. The first to achieve this goal is to provide adequate training to the healthcare professionals. The healthcare curriculum should incorporate the elements of cultural diversity (Grant, Parry Guerin, 2013, p. 253). The other strategy to apply is to carry out public awareness on individual Australians. An appeal should be made to every individual to support the efforts to deliver cultural competent healthcare. At the same time, the government should heavily invest on research. Adequate studies can help in bringing information that can enable the healthcare providers to deliver evidence-based cultural competence healthcare services (Gajjar, et al 2014, p. 385). The carrying out of such researches can enable the government to come up with responsive policy frameworks to lay out strategies on how to improve the face of healthcare in the country. Conclusion It is quite disheartening that Australia that, for a long time, has been credited for having the best healthcare system in the country still faces the reality of unequal distribution of healthcare services amongst its populations. This has been partly been caused by the diverse nature of the nation. However, one way of bridging this gap is through the provision of cultural competence in healthcare. All the healthcare professionals should be empowered to actively contribute towards the delivery of culturally competent healthcare services in the country. To do so, the government should partner with ethnic and cultural communities and give them the necessary support to contribute towards this cause. At the same time, the government should allocate adequate resources to use in research and providing education and awareness on the significance of having culturally-competent healthcare services in the country. References Almutairi, A.F., McCarthy, A. Gardner, G.E., 2014. Understanding Cultural Competence in a Multicultural Nursing Workforce Registered Nurses Experience in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, p.1043659614523992. Brown, A., et al., 2015. A strategy for translating evidence into policy and practice to close the gap-developing essential service standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cardiovascular care. 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