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Ethnicity In Nursing

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In culturally diverse societies, like the UK, where various factors, such as culture, ethnicity and races come together, for nurses it is imperative to be aware of how these factors might have an effect on their practice. Hence, through this essay the concepts of culture, race and ethnicity will be explored. Moreover, how to face these challenges during practice developing transcultural and cross-cultural communication and showing professionalism, cultural competence and cultural response will be considered followed by two cultural issues, nursing culture and patient culture.
Culture is a set of presumptions, values, ideas, expectations, meanings, norms and practices that have been transmitted and acquired throughout generations (Fernando, …show more content…
Currently, there are five major racial groups Native American, African, Caucasian, Pacific Islander and Asian (Risch et al., 2002). Moreover, ethnicity is related to the belonging or attachment to a specific group as a result of social strings, such as religion or cultural background of that group (Holland and Hogg, 2010). Additionally, culture and ethnicity tend to be related, as in their definitions concepts such as customs, habits, background and beliefs, are explained. However, these terms do not cover the extensive culture definition (Marzilli, 2014). Thus, it is significant to know culture, race and ethnicity concepts to understand how individuals communicate between themselves, to assess them according to their background and to treat them in a professional and an equal …show more content…
This enables nurses to understand the linguistic needs and beliefs of a particular patient and to raise the awareness of cultural diversity (Andrews and Boyle, 2012; McClimens, Brewster, and Lewis, 2014). When a patient, who does not have any knowledge of English language, comes to the hospital to receive treatment, nurses face a challenge about how to assess the patient. The Standard of Competence for Registered Nurses (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2004) establishes that nurses must use a variety of communication skills, such as non-verbal communication (interpreting body language or eye contact) or request a language interpreter. Furthermore, they must acknowledge their values and assumptions and how this might affect their communication with others to ensure the quality of the care given. Alternatively, Andrews and Boyle (2012) suggest that cross-cultural communication allows nurses to have broader knowledge and comprehension of how individuals correspond and communicate with one another. When using cross-cultural communication, nurses should avoid using “technical jargon, slang and colloquial expressions” that prevent nurses to have fluent communication with patients. Upon reflexion, it argues that a level of cultural diversity awareness has been gained to become more sensitive and to improve the ability to deal with various

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