3.1 Diverse Patients Introduction
Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN)
Learning Objectives
- Reflect upon personal and cultural values, beliefs, biases, and heritage[1]
- Embrace diversity, equity, inclusivity, health promotion, and health care for individuals of diverse geographic, cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, and spiritual backgrounds across the life span[2]
- Demonstrate respect, equity, and empathy in actions and interactions with all health care consumers[3]
- Participate in life-long learning to understand cultural preferences, worldviews, choices, and decision-making processes of diverse clients[4]
- Adapt care considering all aspects of diversity
- Identify principles of protecting client dignity
- Identify principles of holistic, client-centered care
- Identify strategies to advocate for clients
- Identify principles of religion and spirituality
No matter who we are or where we come from, every person was raised with cultural values and beliefs. The impact of culture on a person’s health is profound because it affects many health beliefs, such as perceived causes of illness, ways to prevent illness, and acceptance of medical treatments. Culturally responsive care integrates these cultural beliefs into an individual’s health care. Culturally responsive care is intentional and promotes trust and rapport with clients. At its heart, culturally responsive care is client-centered care. The American Nurses Association (ANA) states, “The art of nursing is demonstrated by unconditionally accepting the humanity of others, respecting their need for dignity and worth, while providing compassionate, comforting care.”[5]
Nurses provide holistic care when incorporating their clients’ physical, mental, spiritual, cultural, and social needs into their health care (referred to as holism). As a nursing student, you are undertaking a journey of developing cultural competency with an attitude of cultural humility as you learn how to provide holistic care to your clients. Cultural competence is a lifelong process of applying evidence-based nursing in agreement with the cultural values, beliefs, worldview, and practices of clients to produce improved client outcomes.[6],[7],[8]
Cultural humility is defined by the American Nurses Association as, “A humble and respectful attitude toward individuals of other cultures that pushes one to challenge their own cultural biases, realize they cannot know everything about other cultures, and approach learning about other cultures as a life-long goal and process.”[9] Nurses improve the quality of health care by understanding, respecting, and incorporating their clients’ cultural values, beliefs, and preferences, which can ultimately help reduce health disparities.[10]
This chapter will introduce concepts related to adapting nursing care that considers all aspects of diversity.
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Cultural competence in health and human services. https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/cultural-competence ↵
- Curtis, E., Jones, R., Tipene-Leach, D., Walker, C., Loring, B., Paine, S.-J., & Reid, P. (2019). Why cultural safety rather than cultural competency is required to achieve health equity: A literature review and recommended definition. International Journal for Equity in Health, 18, 174. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1082-3 ↵
- Young, S., & Guo, K. (2016). Cultural diversity training: The necessity for cultural competence for healthcare providers and in nursing practice. The Health Care Manager, 35(2), 94-102. https://doi.org/10.1097/hcm.0000000000000100 ↵
- American Nurses Association. (2021). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association. ↵
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Cultural and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in maternal health care. https://wicworks.fns.usda.gov/resources/culturally-and-linguistically-appropriate-services-maternal-health-care ↵
Nursing actions that integrate a person’s cultural beliefs into their care.
Treatment of the whole person, including physical, mental, spiritual, and social needs.
A lifelong process of applying evidence-based nursing in agreement with the cultural values, beliefs, worldview, and practices of clients to produce improved client outcomes
Defined by the American Nurses Association as, "A humble and respectful attitude toward individuals of other cultures that pushes one to challenge their own cultural biases" realize they cannot know everything about other cultures, and approach learning about other cultures as a life-long goal and process