Culture affects every aspect of a person’s life: how they interact with others, how they express emotions, and how they view healthcare. As stated by nurse anthropologist, Madeleine Leininger, in her transcultural nursing theory, nurses must seek to understand other cultures to provide care that is congruent with a patient’s cultural values and practices (Berman and Snyder, 2012, p. 449). Leininger asserts that culturally competent care positively impacts patient’s satisfaction and compliance. Many hospitals and nursing schools provide education to their employees and students to develop cultural awareness and confidence in caring for culturally diverse patients. The research discussed in this paper seeks to discover the effects cultural sensitivity
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PhD (2006) performed a phenomenological qualitative study to detail nurse-patient interactions between culturally diverse patients and the nurses who cared for them in acute care (p.319-332). The study sought to document unique perspectives of eight Australian nurses and their patients of mixed Asian and Middle Eastern decent. Five nurses reported prior cultural diversity education; the others did not. Private, open ended, interview questions were asked of the nurses and their patients. The responses were recorded and assessed after the patients were acutely hospitalized for three days. The study revealed three themes that existed within relationships: shared tensions, perceived differences, and held awareness. Cioffi’s study (2006) also found that when culturally diverse patients had care good experiences, they were more willing to share their needs. Communication was also found to be a major obstacle for nurses and patients to overcome. Cioffi (2006) concluded that this data suggests the importance of establishing a respectful starting point with the patient to establish expectations of the nurse-patient relationship, thus allowing cultural differences and requests to be …show more content…
161-166). These researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial comprised of 114 randomly selected health care providers and 133 of their patients who volunteered. This group was divided into two groups: one that received the training and one that did not. Quantitative research provided statistical information documenting the impact of cultural sensitivity training on cultural awareness and patient outcomes. Phenomenological qualitative research expounded upon the quantitative findings. At the end of the eighteen month study, Majumdar et al.’s research revealed that cultural sensitivity training led to an increase in cultural awareness, greater insight, decreased closed-mindedness, and improved ability to care for and communicate with minority patients on behalf of the health care providers. The study also showed that patients obtained a higher level of functional capacity when cared for by nurses who experienced cultural sensitivity training. Majumdar et al. concluded that the experiment should be conducted on a larger scale to include more minority patients and that data should be collected once health care providers were further removed from the
PhD (2006) performed a phenomenological qualitative study to detail nurse-patient interactions between culturally diverse patients and the nurses who cared for them in acute care (p.319-332). The study sought to document unique perspectives of eight Australian nurses and their patients of mixed Asian and Middle Eastern decent. Five nurses reported prior cultural diversity education; the others did not. Private, open ended, interview questions were asked of the nurses and their patients. The responses were recorded and assessed after the patients were acutely hospitalized for three days. The study revealed three themes that existed within relationships: shared tensions, perceived differences, and held awareness. Cioffi’s study (2006) also found that when culturally diverse patients had care good experiences, they were more willing to share their needs. Communication was also found to be a major obstacle for nurses and patients to overcome. Cioffi (2006) concluded that this data suggests the importance of establishing a respectful starting point with the patient to establish expectations of the nurse-patient relationship, thus allowing cultural differences and requests to be …show more content…
161-166). These researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial comprised of 114 randomly selected health care providers and 133 of their patients who volunteered. This group was divided into two groups: one that received the training and one that did not. Quantitative research provided statistical information documenting the impact of cultural sensitivity training on cultural awareness and patient outcomes. Phenomenological qualitative research expounded upon the quantitative findings. At the end of the eighteen month study, Majumdar et al.’s research revealed that cultural sensitivity training led to an increase in cultural awareness, greater insight, decreased closed-mindedness, and improved ability to care for and communicate with minority patients on behalf of the health care providers. The study also showed that patients obtained a higher level of functional capacity when cared for by nurses who experienced cultural sensitivity training. Majumdar et al. concluded that the experiment should be conducted on a larger scale to include more minority patients and that data should be collected once health care providers were further removed from the