Ethnicity & Culture Chapter 21 Unit 9/10 Flashcards
- The student nurse learns that which item is the most important symbolic aspect of culture?
a. Flags
b. Language
c. Art
d. Music
ANS: B
Language is the most extensively used set of symbols in a culture. The other items are important symbols but are not as important as language because words are used to represent objects and ideas.
What is culture?
Culture is defined as the totality of socially transmi ed behavioral pa tterns, beliefs, values, customs, lifeways, arts, and all other products of human work and thought characteristics of a population of people that guide their worldview and decision making
Culture is learned , it is not inherited. It is not biologically inherited.
What Is Ethnicity?
Ethnicity is the person’s identification with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observation of the group’s customs, beliefs, and language. Ethnicity is based on cultural similarities and differences within a society or nation.
What Is the best symbolism of a culture?
Language is the most important symbolic aspect of culture. Language represents the most extensive use of symbols in a culture because words are used to represent objects and ideas.
- Which statement best serves as a guide for nurses seeking to learn more about ethnicity?
a. Ethnicity, like culture, generally is based on genetics.
b. A patient’s ethnic background is determined by skin color.
c. Ethnicity is based on cultural similarities and differences in a society.
d. Culture and socialization are unrelated to the concept of ethnic origin.
c. Ethnicity is based on cultural similarities and differences in a society.
Ethnicity is based on cultural similarities and differences in a society or nation. The similarities are with members of the same ethnic group; the differences are between that group and others. Ethnicity is not based on or determined by genetics or skin color. Culture, ethnicity, and socialization are all related concepts.
- Which action taken by a nurse would reflect application of an appropriate generalization in a patient care setting?
a. Assigning same-gender nurses to all patients admitted to the unit
b. Asking the dietary intern to verify with Middle Eastern patients whether they eat pork
c. Telling the radiology technician that every non-Hispanic family is late for appointments
d. Assuming that extended families share financial responsibility for medical bills
Answer: b
Middle Eastern people typically do not consume pork products. This generalization would be helpful to use as a baseline when caring for Muslim or Jewish patients. It is always important to ask patients to verify whether they adhere to cultural norms. Same-gender nurses need not be assigned to all patients. Making broad statements regarding people of one culture is stereotyping and hurtful. Assuming anything without asking about patient traditions or preferences is inappropriate.
- Which statements reflect the practice of transcultural nursing? (Select all that apply.)
a. May be considered a general and specialty practice area
b. Focuses on the worldview rather than patient needs
c. Challenges traditional ethnocentric nursing practice
d. Aims to identify individual patient care preferences
e. Focuses patient care on the nurse’s cultural norms
Answers: a, c, d
Transcultural nursing is a general and specialty practice that focuses on both worldview and individual patient and family needs for planning and providing care. It challenges nurses to investigate other cultures in order to reject ethnocentric care and respond to individual needs.
Transcultural nurses provide knowledgeable, competent, and safe care to people of diverse cultures.
- Which of the following questions are appropriate to ask during a transcultural assessment? (Select all that apply.)
a. How do you act when you are angry?
b. What is your role in your extended family?
c. Why do you continue to speak German at home?
d. When communicating with friends, how close do you stand?
e. What is the purpose of not preparing beef with milk products
Answers: a, b, d
How a person acts when angry, the person’s role in the family, and comfort with proximity all are relevant aspects of the patient’s cultural norms according to Giger and should be assessed to raise the nurse’s awareness of patient needs. Asking patients why they use their native language in the home is unnecessary. If primary language information is needed, the nurse should simply ask what language is spoken in the home. The nurse should not try to seek information about the reason a person maintains dietary traditions during the assessment process.
- How best can a nurse evaluate goal attainment for a patient with a culturally diverse background?
a. Assume that gender roles will be a challenge to overcome regardless of the patient’s ethnicity.
b. Base decisions on feedback from the patient and the nurse’s professional judgment.
c. Collaborate with future community care providers to determine patient strengths.
d. Seek input from members of the patient’s support system to avoid biased patient responses.
Answer: b
Decisions about whether a patient has met treatment goals or outcomes should be based on patient feedback and a nurse’s professional judgment. Gender role considerations are unlikely to play a role in evaluation. Future community care providers are unable to help in the evaluation of patient goals before participating in a patient’s care. The patient is the primary person from whom information should be obtained in evaluating goals and outcomes.
Why is Transcultural Nursing important
Transcultural nursing focuses on human caring–associated differences and similarities among the beliefs, values, and patterned life ways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2017). It is both a specialty and a general practice area that focuses on worldwide cultures and comparative cultural caring, health, and nursing phenomena.
Transcultural nurses provide knowledgeable, competent, and safe care to people of diverse cultures. Research in transcultural nursing focuses on discovering or explaining largely unknown and vaguely known cultural care and health concerns from two perspectives: The emic perspective focuses on the local, indigenous, and insider’s culture; the etic perspective focuses on the outsider’s world, and especially on professional views (Leininger, 2000).
What is Enculturation
Enculturation is the process whereby a culture is passed from generation to generation. Enculturation begins at birth as parents and family members begin to teach the child what is expected in terms of familial responsibilities and contributions. This learning process occurs consciously and unconsciously through interactions with friends, schoolteachers, and a variety of community members. Culture can be taught directly, for example, as with a mother teaching her child a family recipe, or indirectly, as occurs when a son observes the behavior of his father and other males in his family. By paying a ention to things that happen around them, children modify their behaviors on the basis of the actions of other family members.
- What aspect of culture is a full-time employed granddaughter of an elderly female exhibiting if she asks the social worker to place her grandmother in an extended-care facility against the wishes of her parents?
a. System change
b. Gender role
c. Cultural norms
d. Shared attributes
Answer: a
As one aspect of a society changes, the systems within that society change. The granddaughter in this case is employed full-time and unable to adequately care for her grandmother at home. Therefore, her request to have the grandmother placed in an extended-care facility reflects societal changes that affect traditional culture expectations of one generation providing care in the home. Shared attributes, cultural norms, and gender role are all challenged by the granddaughter’s actions.
- Culturally competent care would encourage which action by a patient’s family?
a. Asking the family’s spiritual advisor to visit the patient
b. Speaking English to everyone involved in patient care
c. Adhering to highly publicized restrictive unit visiting hours
d. Limiting food consumption to items provided by the cafeteria
Answer: a
Allowing a patient to meet with a spiritual advisor recognizes the importance of a patient’s spiritual needs. Culturally competent care allows for flexibility within safety guidelines and patient care limitations. Limiting language use, food consumption, and visiting hours in a strict manner without sensitivity to a patient’s preference do not reflect culturally competent nursing care.
- If a patient’s primary language differs from that of the health care professionals providing care, which action is most appropriate for the nurse to take?
a. Use colorful pictures, whiteboards, and gestures to communicate all important information.
b. Verify patient understanding of questions asked when the patient responds with continuous affirmative answers.
c. Arrange for a professional language translator to be present 24 hours each day.
d. Decrease interaction with the patient and family to avoid making them uncomfortable for not understanding.
Answer: b
Consistent affirmative answers from a patient in the form of verbal responses or nods may indicate that a patient does not really understand what is being asked and is just trying to be cooperative. It is important for the nurse to double check to make sure a patient understands instructions and questions to ensure safety and proper care. Not all information can be conveyed via pictures or gestures, and a professional interpreter need not be present 24 hours a day. Interpreters can be reached by phone or video conferencing, as needed. Ignoring or avoiding patients or families with culturally diverse backgrounds serves to isolate them and is never appropriate.
- Which ICNP nursing diagnosis is most appropriate for a young immigrant who expresses concern for the safety of his family members who were unable to relocate with him out of a war zone?
a. Risk for Spiritual Distress
b. Impaired Role Performance
c. Impaired Family Process
d. Difficulty Coping
Answer: c
A key factor in Impaired Family Process is a situational crisis that causes a change in communication and emotional and mutual support, all of which are present in this case. None of the information provided indicates a spiritual crisis, ineffectiveness of coping, or impairment of role performance.
