Chapter 9: Culture and Ethnicity in Nursing Practice

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering health disparities, cultural competence models, communication aids, and culturally specific nursing considerations across life transitions and end-of-life care.

Health Disparity

A particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national, and local levels.

Worldview

A set of assumptions that begins to develop during childhood and guides how one sees, thinks about, experiences, and interprets the world.

Emic Worldview

An insider perspective or view within a culture.

Etic Worldview

An outsider perspective or view of a culture.

Culture

The shared norms, values, and traditions that affect how people value, evaluate, and categorize life experiences, encompassing ethnicity, race, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation, location, class, and immigration status.

Intersectionality

A research and policy model used for studying the complexities of people's lives and experiences across multiple intersecting social categories.

Oppression

A system of advantages and disadvantages tied to membership in social groups.

Illness

The way that individuals and families react to disease.

Disease

Malfunctioning biological or psychological processes.

Cultural Competency

The enabling of health care providers to deliver services that are respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices, and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients.

Cultural Awareness

An in-depth self-examination of one's own background, personal biases, and assumptions toward other cultures.

Cultural Knowledge

The process of learning about and obtaining educational knowledge regarding diverse cultural groups.

Cultural Skill

The ability of a health care provider to conduct a cultural assessment and/or a culturally-based physical assessment.

Cultural Encounter

Purposely engaging and meeting with people of other cultures to decrease personal bias and improve understanding.

Cultural Desire

The intrinsic motivation of a health care provider wanting to become more culturally competent.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own way of life is superior to that of others, which leads to bias and prejudice.

Health Literacy

The capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and the services needed to make appropriate health decisions.

Linear Hierarchy

An organizational structure in certain cultures where negotiation of conflict occurs exclusively among people within the same level of authority or position.

Language Access Services

Legally mandated free language assistance, including bilingual staff or interpreters, that health care organizations must provide to patients with limited English proficiency.

Halal

Foods permissible for Muslims, including meat slaughtered during a prayer ritual, fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, and cheese; prohibits non-Halal meat, animals with fangs, pork products, gelatin products, and alcohol.

Kosher

Jewish dietary practices that prohibit pork, meat from carnivores, and scaleless or finless fish, mandate that animals are slaughtered with minimal suffering, and require meat and dairy to be prepared and served on separate dishes.

River Ganges Holy Water Ritual

A devout Hindu end-of-life practice where family members place a drop of sacred water on the dying person's lips immediately after death to aid their soul's journey to the next life.

Anointing of the Sick

A Roman Catholic sacrament administered by a priest to individuals experiencing serious illness or nearing death.