In my public health career, I have had the privilege of serving diverse populations of various ethnic groups, religious and cultural practices across the globe. Specifically, I have worked with vulnerable groups including the homeless, hungry, pregnant, uninsured, and those infected with AIDS. With these experiences and having being an U.S. immigrant, I am able to easily relate to and empathize with patients of different religion, languages and/or culturally practices. Working with these diverse population has helped to expand my worldview. I have become more open-minded to different ways of getting the same result(s). This character trait has been advantageous in both my personal and professional lives and have helped me to gain people
At my physician office, the staff always dress and act professionally. I have been going to my physician since I was 6, I have even job shadowed my physician. I do not recall a time my physician or his staff has ever been unprofessional. They are always dressed in scrubs or business casual. As a medical assistant, you can ensure your professional appearance by a few steps: always wear scrubs
My capstone project is about the need for nurses to learn about cultural diversity, cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity. This has been a fascinating project to explore and I am learning about so many cultural beliefs. When a patient's cultural practice is understood competent patient care is rendered and health care disparities are eliminated. For example, in some cultures many people believe that illness and evil can be prevented by following strict religious codes, morals and practices.
For my Diverse Field Experience this semester, I spent fifteen hours at the Mclean County Juvenile Detention Center. This particular center was occupied by about 8-14 juveniles at a time, all depending on court dates and occupancy of other nearby detention centers. This center usually had 3 staff members working the shift every time I went, which was seven to nine on weekday afternoons. I was intrigued to go to at this time because I thought it would be the time of the day were the juveniles had no school work or other obligations to do while I was there. I wanted to see what they liked to do in the free time before bed, the only stipulation being mandatory snack time at eight pm.
I began college in 2014 at the age of 58 years-old to change my area of employment and do something that is far more interesting to me, working within the social services field. I realize the fact I was brought up by two dysfunctional, abusive parents in a chaotic home lead me to search out that same type of familiar relationship when I left home at the age of seventeen. In short, I married a domestic violence abuser and alcoholic when I was 19 years-old and had 5 children. Ten years into the marriage, when I had finally reached the end of my rope, a local police officer helped me to obtain a Protection from Abuse order and removed my husband from the home. This era was the birth of the Protection from Abuse orders and for me and this new
When thinking about my personal philosophy of nursing the word diversity comes to mind. I myself come from a diverse background. Being Hispanic and living in different parts of the united states I have had the pleasure of experiencing different cultures. As a nurse, I have encountered diverse patient experiences. For example the Chinese elderly woman who would not take her medication or eat.
My dutie for my health science was HOSA. I was co president of HOSA and my duty was to lead the club and we did community service. We went to Monroe Middle School and conducted the Boys and Girls Club. My classmates and I went on different days throughout the week and taught them about different things. On Monday October 3rd the club was taught about reaching goals, on Tuesday October 4th they were taught about diversity, on Wednesday October 5th they were taught about being ready for the future, and on Thursday October 6th they were taught about personal characteristics.
This necessitates attentive listening, the acceptance of prejudices, and the appreciation of cultural differences (Purnell, 2005). Many studies have emphasized the importance of cultural competence in improving healthcare outcomes for various groups, such as reducing health disparities and increasing patient satisfaction and the credibility of healthcare practitioners (Brach & Fraser, 2000; Betancourt et al., 2003; Beach et al., 2005; Thom et al., 2006). According to a study of community health center healthcare practitioners, those with higher levels of cultural competency were more likely to provide patient-centered care and have better patient outcomes (Sawrikar & Katz, 2014). Similarly, a systematic review emphasizes the importance of cultural competency in healthcare, arguing that in order to provide effective and equitable care, healthcare personnel must understand and respond to their patients' cultural, linguistic, and social demands (Dreachslin et al., 2012).
Q 5 – Explain how diversity impacts on practices and experiences on person behaviour, interpersonal relationships, perception and social expectations of others. A – Acknowledge similarities and differences that exist between yourself, co-workers and clients. Culture plays an important part in a person’s behaviour, thoughts and how they relate towards others. An individual's cultural perceptions and expectations will directly impact on the way they work with each client and their co-workers; a failure to recognise cultural differences may cause serious problems when they are dealing with others in the workplace.
This year, I experienced both a personal and academic obstacle that correlate with one another. In January, I started the year long Medical Assisting program at my school. Prior to beginning this program, I was so excited to be getting a medically centered education, and learning about the field I wanted to expand my career in. After entering the program and learning that there is so much more to medicine than just taking care of patients, I began to lose my interest. This was shocking to me since, my whole life up until this year, I believed I was going to become an amazing medical doctor.
As of this time, we have addressed the issues of disparities in healthcare that have been lingering amongst us for a few centuries. We have also touched on the topic of competencies in the healthcare system as well. In life the will always be something with an issue, now, let’s discuss the solutions. First, let’s just do a quick recap of the ‘issues’ we are addressing that are the reasons we are discussing a few solutions. The first, issue was the healthcare disparities, as you should remember disparities in healthcare mean that there are many distinct correlations between the lack of healthcare and certain ethnic and racial minorities.
The solution to overcoming this barrier would be cultural competence training. Cultural competence training has shown great promise at improving the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of health professionals when it comes to working with diverse populations (Mareno, 2014). I find that it would be good for every organization to establish a generalized diversity training for all staff to take. This training could discuss that its okay to ask a patient about their cultural and how we as a care provider could better meet their needs. This training could also discuss the topic of being self-aware.
Nursing, and everything that it entails, cannot be easily described in just one simple word or phrase. It goes beyond the meaning of a profession and the stereotypical definition of treating the ill. Nursing is the “protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2010, p. 1). Therefore, it is a career that requires dedication, passion, critical thinking, and knowledge. It demands commitment and an understanding of its core values and concepts, as well as the nurse’s own personal philosophy and principles.
My passion for healthcare lies with patient care. I enjoy taking care of patients and their family. I have chosen to become a family nurse practitioner because I can combine nursing and medicine to provide a higher level of care to my patients. As a nurse practitioner will be able to make an impact on my patient’s health through, health promotion, disease prevention, managing acute and chronic conditions and improving patient’s health (Wynne,
Cultural competence for nurses is defined as the willingness or the desire to understand another person’s culture, the ability to learn about diverse cultural belief systems, and to work effectively as a healthcare professional. This includes, understanding the dynamics of a patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships, interactions, and understanding of overall health. Awareness of one’s own culture, along with the understanding of other cultures, and how this relates to nursing care is essential to improve outcomes for patients (Kardong-Edgren et al., 2010). In 2010, the United States Census revealed that 37% of the population considered themselves to be minorities, and by 2020 this demographic will increase by 40%.
Human development happens continuously throughout ones lifespan as we develop and change. Genes exemplify biological factors in human development. Some biological factors are visible, for example skin tone and hair color. Some biological factors are unobserved, for instance genetic abnormalities and risks for diseases. From a biopsychosocial perspective what one becomes is the product of genes, or biological forces.