Cultural and Spiritual Sensitivity in Nursing

Values and Culture

• Literature Perspective on Culture:

  • Culture is learned and shared beliefs, values, and life ways within a group, transmitted intergenerationally affecting thinking and actions.

  • Overcoming language barriers alone is insufficient for addressing diverse client needs.

• Culture & Values:

  • Society's values, beliefs, principles, norms, myths, and legends are included in culture.

  • Values define acceptable behaviors, emotional reactions, and appropriate actions in various situations.

  • Values are instilled in early childhood and influence decisions regarding food, healthcare, and death rites.

• Personal Values:

  • Important to individual lifestyle choices, such as family connections, honesty, health, and social acceptance.

Attitudes, Beliefs, and Faith

• Attitudes:

  • Dispositions or emotions toward persons or ideas.

• Beliefs:

  • Acceptance of opinions as real or true without personal knowledge, reliant on faith over fact.

• Faith:

  • Confidence in the value of a belief or idea, not based on logical truth or material evidence but trust in the unseen.

Cultural Barriers in Nursing

• Common Barriers:

  • Varying importance of family involvement in health, mistrust in healthcare providers, differing links between illness and science, beliefs about mind-body connection and denial of death.

• Professional Values:

  • Standards of conduct for professions including respect for dignity, honoring client rights, care, and equality.

Caring in Nursing

• Caring as a Value:

  • Identified as an essential attitude by AACN.

  • Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring stresses the importance of caring in nursing.

• Healing Consciousness:

  • The nurse's mindset fosters connections beyond physical care, requiring balance between personal and others’ belief systems.

• Transpersonal Caring:

  • Focuses on caring for the spirit and well-being, emphasizing patient wholeness over disease.

• AACN Values:

  • Altruism, Equality, Esthetics, Freedom, Human Dignity, Justice, Truth.

Cultural and Spiritual Sensitivity in Nursing

• Importance of Sensitivity:

  • The Joint Commission mandates hospitals respect patient rights and cultural beliefs.

• Steps to Culturally Diverse Care:

  1. Recognize personal cultural influences on attitudes.

  2. Understand the cultural values of patients.

• Cultural Insensitivity:

  • Often unintentional, resulting from a lack of knowledge, fear, or denial, leading to misunderstandings.

• Cultural Competence:

  • Vital in nursing practice as patient advocates, incorporating cultural considerations into health interventions for positive outcomes.

• Five Essential Elements:

  • Valuing diversity, cultural self-assessment, understanding dynamics of cultural interactions, institutional knowledge, and service adaptations reflecting cultural diversity.

Spirituality in Nursing

• Understanding Spirituality:

  • Spirituality is a personal belief system transcending physical reality, unlike religion which is an organized expression of beliefs.

• Patient's Spiritual Needs:

  • Research indicates patients welcome questions about spirituality, linking spiritual needs with improved quality of life.

• Addressing Spiritual Needs:

  • Use assessment tools like FICA and SPIRIT to explore patients' beliefs and integrate them into care.

Barriers to Spiritual Care

• Challenges in Providing Spiritual Care:

  • Lack of knowledge, time constraints, fear of addressing spiritual issues, and misconceptions regarding the nurse’s role.

• Identifying Spiritual Needs:

  • Look for environmental cues, emotional transitions, and behaviors indicating spiritual distress.

Interventions for Spiritual Distress

• Appropriate Actions:

  • Show caring, understand patient expressions of spirituality, support faith needs, listen actively, and document spiritual care provided.