Maintenance of Social Hierarchies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Maintenance of Social Hierarchies - Essay Example Changing treatment technologies, immigration of people from other parts of the world, different perceptions of culture and treatment approaches as well as rise in rights and gender of special groups such as lesbians and gays demand that nurses must be culturally competent. This is to be able to truly care for the sick in different communities. Without cultural competency, it is extremely difficult to offer fair and equal nursing care to all. There are two models that were used to describe culture and diversity. They are the theory of culture care: Diversity and Universality and Purnell model of nursing. The theory of culture care: Diversity and Universality focus on nursing and consequences of health care services. It also put emphasis on culture and care relationship as it focus on individuals. Finally, the theory acknowledges that caring is a universal concept that vary across different cultures. Purnell model brings communication, bio-cultural, high-risk behaviors, nutrition, work force issues, pregnancy and childbearing practices, death rituals, health care practices and health care providers to explain culture more explicitly. The factors that have contributed to health disparities in underserved populations are racial and ethical differences, geographical isolation, lack of consumer involvement in decision making, poverty and lack of trained health care providers. There are a number of Socio-cultural factors that directly influence quality health care. The Socio-cultural factors include family roles, bio-cultural ecology, workforce issues, nutrition and spirituality. Family roles involve different roles played by male and female persons in the society. In some societies, nursing is a preserve for the female and patients may perceive men as incompetent in nursing field. Secondly, bio-cultural ecology is another factor that explains variation in ethnic and race. A person of a certain race may find it unacceptable for nurses from different races to care him o r her. The third factor is workforce issues. Some people prefer working as individuals or communicating in certain ways which may conflict with behavior of people from other cultures. Fourth factor is nutrition. Different communities like or dislike certain foods. Spirituality is another factor. Some people prefer use of black magic or herbs as opposed to modern medicine. The barrier to delivering quality health care includes poor communication, stereotyping, cultural blindness and ethnocentrism. The current perspective is that cultural competence / trans-culture is both a general practice and specialty area that focus on global cultures. A nurse is culturally competent if he or she posses four cognitive components. A nurse need to be culturally aware, should have a positive attitude towards different cultures, gain cultural knowledge and develop various cultural skills. The two ways of how health care providers can be culturally competent in organizations is first, through training and second, by getting immersed in the communities in which they