Chapter 9: Culture and Ethnicity Practice Test Flashcards
A 6-month-old child from Guatemala was adopted by an American family in Indiana. The child’s socialization into the American midwestern culture is best described as:
- Assimilation.
- Acculturation.
- Biculturalism.
- Enculturation
Answer: 4.
Socialization into one’s primary culture as a child is known as enculturation.
A 46-year-old woman from Bosnia came to the United States 6 years ago. Although she did not celebrate Christmas when she lived in Bosnia, she celebrates Christmas with her family now. This woman has experienced assimilation into the culture of the United States because she:
- Chose to be bicultural.
- Adapted to and adopted the American culture.
- Had an extremely negative experience with the American culture.
- Gave up part of her ethnic identity in favor of the American culture
Answer: 2.
Assimilation results when an individual gradually adopts and incorporates the characteristics of the dominant culture.
To enhance their cultural awareness, nursing students need to make an in-depth self-examination of their own:
- Motivation and commitment to caring.
- Social, cultural, and biophysical factors.
- Engagement in cross-cultural interactions.
- Background, recognizing personal biases and prejudices.
Answer: 4.
Cultural awareness is an in-depth self-examination of one’s own background, recognizing biases and prejudices and assumptions about other people.
Which of the following is required in the delivery of culturally congruent care?
- Learning about vast cultures
- Motivation and commitment to caring
- Influencing treatment and care of patients
- Acquiring specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes
Answer: 4.
Specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes are required in the delivery of culturally congruent care.
A registered nurse is admitting a patient of French heritage to the hospital. Which question asked by the nurse indicates that the nurse is stereotyping the patient?
- “What are your dietary preferences?”
- “What time do you typically go to bed?”
- “Do you bathe and use deodorant more than one time a week?”
- “Do you have any health issues that we should know about?”
Answer: 3.
Nurses need to avoid stereotypes or unwarranted generalizations about any particular group that prevents further assessment of the individual’s unique characteristics.
When action is taken on one’s prejudices:
- Discrimination occurs.
- Delivery of culturally congruent care is ensured.
- Effective intercultural communication develops.
- Sufficient comparative knowledge of diverse groups is obtained.
Answer: 1.
Prejudices associate negative permanent characteristics with people who are different from the valued group. When a person acts on these prejudices, discrimination occurs.
A nursing student is doing a community health rotation in an inner-city public health department. The student investigates socio-demographic and health data of the people served by the health department, and detects disparities in health outcomes between the rich and poor. This is an example of a(n):
- Illness attributed to natural and biological forces.
- Creation of the student’s interpretation and descriptions of the data.
- Influence of socioeconomic factors in morbidity and mortality.
- Combination of naturalistic, religious, and supernatural modalities.
Answer: 3.
Health disparity populations are populations that have a significant increased incidence or prevalence of disease or that have increased morbidity, mortality, or survival rates compared to the health status of the general population.
Culture strongly influences pain expression and need for pain medication. However, cultural pain is:
- Not expressed verbally or physically.
- Expressed only to others from a similar culture.
- Usually more intense than physical pain.
- Suffered by a patient whose valued way of life is disregarded by practitioners.
Answer: 4.
Patients suffer cultural pain when health care providers disregard values or cultural beliefs.
Which of the following best represents the dominant values in American society on individual autonomy and self-determination?
- Physician orders
- Advance directive
- Durable power of attorney
- Court-appointed guardian
Answer: 2.
Informed consent and advance directives protect the right of the individual to know and make decisions ensuring continuity of individual autonomy and self-determination
The nurse at an outpatient clinic asks a patient who is Chinese American with newly diagnosed hypertension if he is limiting his sodium intake as directed. The patient does not make eye contact with the nurse but nods his head. What should the nurse do next?
- Ask the patient how much salt he is consuming each day
- Discuss the health implications of sodium and hypertension
- Remind the patient that many foods such as soy sauce contain “hidden” sodium
- Suggest some low-sodium dietary alternatives
Answer: 1.
In an Asian culture spoken messages often have little to do with their meanings. It is important for the nurse to clarify how much salt the patient is consuming in his diet.
A female Jamaican immigrant has been late to her last two clinic visits, which in turn had to be rescheduled. The best action that the nurse could take to prevent the patient from being late to her next appointment is:
- Give her a copy of the city bus schedule.
- Call her the day before her appointment as a reminder to be on time
- Explore what has prevented her from being at the clinic in time for her appointment.
- Refer her to a clinic that is closer to her home.
Answer: 3.
Present-time orientation is in conflict with the dominant organizational norm in health care that emphasizes punctuality and adherence to appointments. Nurses need to expect conflicts and make adjustments when caring for ethnic groups.
A nursing student is taking postoperative vital signs in the postanesthesia care unit. She knows that some ethnic groups are more prone to genetic disorders. Which of the following patients is most at risk for developing malignant hypertension?
- Ashkenazi Jew
- Chinese American
- African American
- Filipino
Answer: 3.
Certain genetic disorders are linked with specific ethnic groups such as malignant hypertension among African Americans.
A community health nurse is making a healthy baby visit to a new mother who recently immigrated to the United States from Ghana. When discussing contraceptives with the new mom, the mother states that she won’t have to worry about getting pregnant for the time being. The nurse understands that the mom most likely made this statement because:
- She won’t resume sexual relations until her baby is weaned.
- She is taking the medroxyprogesterone (Depo-Provera) shot.
- Her husband was recently deployed to Afghanistan.
- She has access to free condoms from the clinic.
Answer: 1.
In some African cultures such as in Ghana and Sierra Leone some women will not resume sexual relations with their husbands until the baby is weaned.
During their clinical post-conference meeting, several nursing students were discussing their patients with their instructor. One student from a middle-class family shared that her patient was homeless. This is an example of caring for a patient from a different:
- Ethnicity.
- Culture.
- Heritage.
- Religion.
Answer: 2.
Culture is the context in which groups of people interpret and define their experiences relevant to life transitions. This includes events such as birth, illness, and dying. It is the system of meanings by which people make sense of their experiences.
When interviewing a Native American patient on admission to the hospital emergency department, which questions are appropriate for the nurse to ask? (Select all that apply.)
- Do you use any folk remedies?
- Do you have a family physician?
- Do you use a Shaman?
- Does your family have a history of alcohol abuse?
Answer: 1, 2, 3.
Obtain information about folk remedies and cultural healers that the patient uses. Assessment data yield information about the patient’s beliefs about the illness and the meaning of the signs and symptoms.
