Nurses' Experiences of Caring for Culturally Diverse Patients in an Acute Care Setting
Jane Cioffi
School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Western Sydney, Parramatta Campus, Penrith South NSW
PP: 78
Abstract
Identification of nurses' experiences of caring for culturally diverse patients in acute care settings contributes to transcultural nursing knowledge. This qualitative study aims to describe nurses' experiences of caring for culturally diverse adult patients on medical and surgical wards in an acute care setting. These experiences identify current practice and associated issues for nurses caring for culturally diverse clients. A purposive sample of ten registered nurses was interviewed and transcripts analysed.
Main findings were acquiring cultural knowledge, committing to and engaging with culturally diverse patients. Strategies for change developed from these findings focus on increasing cultural competency of nurses by: implementing a formal education program; developing partnerships with patients and their families to increase cultural comfort; and increasing organisational accommodation of the culturally diverse with policy review and extension of resources. Further research to explore issues for bilingual nurses and to describe the experiences of culturally diverse patients and their families in general acute care settings is recommended.
Keywords
cultural diversity, nursing practice, acute care, cultural competence
References
Adams R, Briones E and Rentfro A (1992) Cultural considerations: Developing a nursing care system for a Hispanic community. Nursing Clinics of North America 27: 107-117.
Benner P (1984) From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice, Commemorative Edition, Addison Wesley, Menlo Park CA, p.31.
Bernal H (1993) A model for delivering culture-relevant care to the community. Public Health Nursing 10: 228-232.
Bernal H and Froman R (1992) Influences on the cultural self-efficacy of community health nurses. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 4: 24-31.
Bernal H, Pardue K and Kramer M (1990) Rewards and frustrations of working with ethnic minority populations: An Hispanic unit experience. Home Healthcare Nurse 8: 19-23.
Blackford J and Street A (2002) Cultural conflict: the impact of Western feminism(s) on nurses caring for women of non-English speaking background. Journal of Clinical Nursing 11: 664-671.
Blackford J and Street A (2000) Nurses of NESB working in a multicultural community. Contemporary Nurse 9: 89-98.
Blackford J, Street A and Parsons C (1997) Breaking down language barriers in clinical practice. Contemporary Nurse 6: 15-21.
Boi S (2000) Nurses' experiences in caring for patients from different cultural backgrounds. NT Research 5: 382-390.
Cioffi J (2004) Caring for women from culturally diverse backgrounds: Midwives' experiences. Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health 49: 437-442.
De Santis L (1994) Developing faculty expertise in cultural-focused care and research. Journal of Advanced Nursing 20: 707-715.
Diver F, Molassiotis A and Weeks L (2003) The palliative care needs of ethnic minority patients: staff perspectives. International Journal of Palliative Care Nursing 9: 343-351.
Donnelly P (1997) Ethics and cross-cultural nursing. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 11: 119-126.
Garrett P and Lin V (1990) Ethnic health policy and service development. In Reid J and Tromf P (eds.) The Health of Immigrant Australia: A social perspective, Harcourt, Sydney NSW, pp.339-380.
Gorman D (1995) Multiculturalism and transcultural nursing in Australia. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 6: 27-33.
Khanyile T (1999) Experiences of student nurses in a multicultural nurse-patient encounter. Curationis: South African Journal of Nursing 22: 20-24.
Kirkham S (1998) Nurses' descriptions of caring for culturally diverse clients. Clinical Nursing Research 7: 125-146.
Kuzel A (1992) Sampling in qualitative inquiry. In Crabtree B and Miller W (eds) Doing Qualitative Research, Sage, Newbury Park CA, pp.33-45.
Lincoln Y and Guba E (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry, Sage, Beverly Hills CA, pp.202-204.
McKinley D and Blackford J (2001) Nurses' experiences of caring for cultrurally and linguistically diverse families when their child dies. International Journal of Nursing Practice 7: 251-256.
McNamara B, Martin K, Waddell C and Yuen K (1997) Palliative care in a multicultural society: perceptions of health care professionals. Palliative Medicine 11: 359-367.
Murphy K and Clark J (1993) Nurses' experiences of caring for ethnic minority clients. Journal of Advanced Nursing 18: 442-450; 495-505.
Nahas V, Hillege S and Amasheh N (1999) International exchange. Postpartum depression: The lived experiences of Middle Eastern migrant women in Australia. Journal of Nurse Midwifery 44: 65-74.
Omeri A, Malcolm P, Ahern M and Wellington B (2003) Meeting the challenges of cultural diversity in the academic setting. Nursing Education in Practice 3: 5-22.
Omeri A and Atkins K (2002) Lived experiences of immigrant nurses in New South Wales, Australia: searching for meaning. International Journal of Nursing Studies 39: 495-505.
Omeri A and Nahas V (1995) Working with a multicultural community: cultural care nursing assessment. In Gray G and Pratt R (eds) Issues in Australian Nursing 5. The Nurse as Clinician, Churchill Livingstone, Melbourne, pp.149-162.
Omeri A (1991) Survey of schools of nursing in Australia related to teaching transcultural nursing (unpublished) Cited in Omeri A, Transcultural nursing fact or fiction in multicultural Australia. In Omeri A and Cameron-Traub E (eds) Transcultural nursing in multicultural Australia. Royal College of Nursing Australia, Deakin VIC pp.16- 31.
Pope-Davies D, Eliason M and Ottavi T (1994) Are nursing students multiculturally competent? An exploratory investigation. Journal of Nursing Education 33: 31-33.
Rice P (2001) Nyo dua hli - 30 days confinement: Traditions and changed childbearing beliefs and practices among Hmong women in Australia. Midwifery 16: 22-34.
Rice P, Naksook C and Watson L (1999) The experiences of postpartum hospital stay and returning home among Thai mothers in Australia. Midwifery 15: 47-57.
Roach N (1999) Australian multiculturalism for a new century: Towards inclusiveness. Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra, pp.8-10.
Roach N (1997) Multicultural Australia: The Way Forward: An Issues Paper, National Multicultural Advisory Services: Canberra, pp.5-7.
Rossiter J (1998) Promoting breastfeeding: The perceptions of Vietnamese mothers in Sydney, Australia. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28: 598-605.
Shareski D (1992) Beyond boundaries: Cross-cultural care. Nursing BC 24: 10-12.
Thobaben M and Mattingly J (1993) Cultural sensitivity: Educating home healthcare nurses to be transcultural nurses. Home Healthcare Nurse 11: 61-63.
Wotton K (2000) Selecting a nursing theory for clinical practice: Analysis and critique. In J Greenwood Nursing theory in Australia: Development and application 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, French's Forest NSW, pp.146-178.
Yelland J, Small R, Lumley J, Rice P, Cotronei V and Warren R (1998) Support, sensitivity satisfaction: Filipino, Turkish and Vietnamese women's experiences of postnatal hospital stay. Midwifery 14: 144-154.
Zwane S and Poggenpoel M (2000) Student nurses experiences of interaction with culturally diverse psychiatric patients. Curationis: South African Journal of Nursing 23:25-31.
eContent Home
