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Assessing Culture

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Assessing Culture
When a nurse walks into a patient’s room an assessment begins. The nurse will begin to assess things such as the central line, IVs, the patient’s orientation but also the nurse assesses the patient’s look, language and the dynamics of the family in the room. Without meaning to the nurse will assume things about the patient’s culture and some may even adjust their care under the assumption. Our country has a wide variety of different cultures, which can make nursing care at times challenging (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). Assessing a patient’s culture is just as important as taking a health history or learning what medications the patient takes at home. Understanding a patient’s culture and taking their culture into consideration during their care could greatly impact the way the patient respond to the care being given (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).
Every patient is different and his or her cultures are different. Many cultures believe that illness comes from something such as bad karma not from unhealthy food choices or lack of physical exercise (Rankin & Stallings, 1996). Use questions to ask the patients about their understanding of the illness, what kind of treatment are they expecting to have, and what are their fears (Rankin & Stallings, 1996). These types of questions can help form a teaching plan that the patient understands and feels like they are a part of. Also finding out how embedded a patient is in their culture can be useful. Ask questions about how long the patient has been in the country, what are their dietary habits, does the patient have associations with native healer or folk medicine doctor (Rankin & Stallings, 1996). Tools such as the Heritage Assessment tool asks these questions and can make taking care of the patient more of a seamless process.
Cultural differences affect patients’ attitudes about

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