NURS 330: Culture and Diversity Lecture Capture pt 1

Week 12: Culture and Diversity

Class Learning Objectives

  • Differentiate between aspects of culture and diversity.
    • Key Question: What could this include?
  • Recognize factors that influence culture.
    • Key Question: What factors influence culture?

Definitions

  • Culture: Patterns of behavior and thinking that people living in social groups learn, develop, and share.
  • Diversity: An array of differences among individuals, groups, and communities.

Attributes of Culture and Diversity

  • Customs: Established practices or norms within a culture.
  • Group Norms: The accepted standards of behavior within a group.
  • Cultural Humility: Openness to understanding and respecting different cultural perspectives.
  • Respect: Acknowledging the importance of diverse cultural beliefs.
  • Scope of Culture: Includes various beliefs about health, illness expression, symptoms, and taboos.

Importance of Studying Culture and Diversity

  • Growing Diversity in the U.S.: The increasing multicultural nature of society necessitates cultural respect and competence.
  • Cultural Humility: Developing an attitudinal disposition that requires lifelong self-reflection and self-critique.

Interrelated Concepts

  • Communication: Culture influences verbal and non-verbal communication patterns.
    • Impacts how messages are interpreted and perceived.
  • Mood and Affect: Elevated rates of depression noted in vulnerable populations including:
    • Ethnic and racial minorities.
    • Disabled individuals.
    • Individuals identifying as LGBTQ+.
  • Healthcare Disparities: Lack of culturally congruent care results in health disparities.
  • Spirituality: Cultural influences shape spiritual beliefs, rituals, and practices.

Culturally Congruent Care

  • Emphasizes the importance of delivering care aligned with a patient’s cultural beliefs, practices, and values.
  • Essential for nurses and healthcare workers to minimize health disparities and promote health equity.

Development of Worldview

  • Cyclical Iterative Process:
    • Influenced by culture, shared experiences, commonalities, and changing social/political contexts.
    • Shaped by affiliations with families, friends, community, schooling, media, and more.
    • Emic Perspective: Insider knowledge through personal experience.
    • Etic Perspective: Outsider knowledge through others' experiences.
  • Importance of avoiding Stereotyping:
    • Assumed beliefs about specific groups can lead to misinformation.

Recognizing Biases

  • Unconscious Bias: Unrecognized biases influenced by personal background and culture.
  • Implicit Bias: Biases of which individuals are aware; relevant in decision-making and patient-centered care.

Individual Needs and Client Care

  • Each individual should be approached uniquely, respecting their personal circumstances and cultural background.
  • Avoid making assumptions based on common stereotypes as each person's needs can differ.

Health Disparities and Social Determinants of Health

  • Health Disparity: A particular type of health difference closely linked with social, economic, and environmental disadvantages:
    • Poor health status, disease risk factors, poor health outcomes, limited care access.
  • Social Determinants of Health: Conditions affecting people's daily lives such as:
    • Economic stability
    • Education
    • Healthcare access and quality
    • Neighborhood environment
    • Social/community context
  • Marginalized Groups: Groups at higher risk for negative health outcomes include:
    • LGBTQ+
    • People of color
    • Individuals with disabilities
    • Non-college educated individuals.

Healthcare Disparities

  • Linked to systemic inadequacies such as:
    • Resource limitations
    • Poor communication between patients and providers
    • Lack of cultural humility in care environments
    • Insufficient access to language services.

Oppression and Privilege

  • Oppression: Disadvantages faced by individuals or groups based on societal biases and norms.
  • Privilege: Advantages granted to particular people or groups that facilitate access to resources.
  • Awareness of both oppression and privilege is crucial in understanding societal dynamics regarding health and welfare.

Identity Terms

  • Racial Identity: Self-identification within social groups that share a common heritage.
  • Ethnic Identity: Sometimes interchangeable with racial identity; describes cultural aspects of a geographic region, including language, heritage, and customs.
  • Cultural Identity: Encompasses characteristics related to demographics, such as ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

Acculturation and Assimilation

  • Acculturation: Transfer and adaptation of values and customs between groups; involves borrowing cultural traits.
    • Example: Native Americans modifying cultural elements upon European contact.
  • Assimilation: Process wherein individuals/groups of differing ethnic heritage become absorbed into the dominant culture.
    • Example: Native Americans shifting dietary practices towards fast food leading to health issues.

Cultural Humility and Respect

  • Essential to reduce health disparities and enhance healthcare access.
  • Care must be culturally sensitive, appropriate, and competent.

Disease vs. Illness

  • Illness: Individual and familial reactions to disease; derived from self-diagnosis and personal wellness perception.
  • Disease: A malfunctioning of biological or psychological processes necessitating expert diagnosis.

Core Measures in Healthcare

  • Defined as evidence-based standards of care for common conditions, intending to:
    • Reduce complications
    • Improve patient outcomes.
  • Compliance indicates how often hospitals provide recommended treatments for conditions such as:
    • Acute myocardial infarction
    • Heart failure
    • Pneumonia
    • Surgical care
    • Children's asthma care
    • Venous thromboembolism
    • Stroke.
  • Hospitals report on these measures quarterly and monthly.

Conclusion

  • Understanding culture and diversity is foundational in providing equitable care, improving health outcomes, and addressing healthcare disparities.