Nursing care of vulnerable populations using a framework of cultural competence, social justice and human rights
Dula F Pacquiao
Center for Multicultural Education, Research; Practice Coordinator, Urban Health Systems, School of Nursing, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark NJ, United States of America
PP: 189 - 197
Abstract
The article attempts to present a model linking cultural competence with advocacy for social justice and protection of human rights in caring for vulnerable groups such as refugees and asylum seekers. Using the human rights principle focuses the moral obligation to address social inequities and suffering of vulnerable populations.
Cultural competent care and culturally-congruent actions place the universal principles of social justice and protection of human rights within the cultural contexts of people’s lives and the environment in which they are situated.
Compassion is identified as the key component for culturally-competent advocacy for social justice and human rights protection. Compassion compels actions advocating social justice and protection of human rights for marginalised and powerless groups. Educational strategies for developing compassion are centered on collaboration, partnership and advocacy. Integration of experiential and didactic learning relevant to cultural competent care for refugees and asylum seekers are recommended.
Keywords
human rights, ethics, social justice, cultural competence, nursing care of vulnerable populations/refugees/asylum seekers
References
Aday L (2001) At Risk in America: The health and health care needs of vulnerable populations in the United States 2nd edn, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.
Burgos-Debray E (ed) (1994) I, Rigobertya Menchu an Indian woman in Guatemala, Verso: USA.
Campinha-Bacote J (2007) The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services 5th edn, Ohio, Transcultural CARE Associates Press, http://www.transculturalcare.net/Resources.htm, accessed July 22 2007.
Carlsten C (2003) Refugee and Immigrant Health Care, Ethnomed http:www.ethnomed.org, accessed July 29 2007.
Crigger NJ, Holcomb L and Weiss J (2001) Fundamentalism, multiculturalism and problems of conducting research with populations in developing nations, Nursing Ethics 8: 459-468.
Crigger NJ, Brannigan M and Baird M (2006) Compassionate nursing professionals as good citizens of the world, Advances in Nursing Science 29: 15-26.
Cook PA, Downing J, Rimmer P, Syed Q and Bellis MA (2006) Treatment and care of HIV positive asylum seekers, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 60: 836-838.
Cross T, Bazron B Dennis K and Isaacs M (1989) Towards A Culturally Competent System of Care Volume I. Georgetown University Child Development Center, CASSP Technical Assistance Center: Washington DC.
Fadiman A (1999) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Farrar Strauss and Giroux, NY.
Foucault M (1994) The Birth of the Clinic: An archeology of medical perception. Vintage Books, NY.
Giddens A (2001) Sociology. Polity: Cambridge.
Harper MG (2006) Ethical multiculturalism an evolutionary analysis, Advances in Nursing Science 29: 110-124.
Helman C (2007) Culture, Health and Illness 5th edn, Oxford: NY.
Helsel DG and Moche M (2002) Afterbirths in the afterlife: Cultural meaning of placental disposal in a Hmong American community, Journal of Transcultural Nursing 13: 282-286.
Koehn PH (2006) Transnational migration, state policy and local clinician treatment of Asylum seekers and resettled migrants, Global Social Policy 6: 21-26.
Lamb CF and Smith M (2002). Problems refugees face when accessing health services, NSW Public Health Bulletin, 13: 161-163.
Leininger M (2002) Transcultural nursing and globalisation of healthcare: Importance, focus and historical aspects, In Leininger M and McFarland M, Transcultural Nursing Concepts, Theories, Research and Practice 3rd edn, pp.3-44, McGraw Hill: New York.
Leininger M (2006) Culture Care Diversity and Universality a Worldwide Nursing Theory 2nd ed, Jones and Bartlett: Massachussetts.
Moreno A, Piwowarczyk L and Grodin MA (2001). Human rights violations and refugee health, Journal of the American Medical Association 285: 1215.
Nodding N (1984) Caring, University of California Press: Berkeley.
Nussbaum M (1997) Cultivating Humanity, Harvard University Press: London.
Omeri A, Lennings C and Raymond L (2006) Beyond asylum implications for nursing and health care delivery for Afghan refugees in Australia, Journal of Transcultural Nursing 17: 30-39.
Pacquiao DF (2007) The relationship between cultural competence education and increasing diversity in nursing schools and practice settings, Journal of Transcultural Nursing 18: 28S-37S.
Pacquiao DF (2008) Culturally-competent ethical decision making, In Andrews M and Boyle J, Transcultural Concepts in Nursing Care 5th edn, pp.408-423. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins: Philadelphia.
Paasche-Orlow M (2004) The ethics of cultural-competence, Academic Medicine 79: 347-350.
Tervalon M and Murray-Garcia J (1998) Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician-training outcomes in multicultural education, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 9: 117-125.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2006) Refugees by Numbers 2006 ed, http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/3b028097c.html, accessed July 22 2007.
eContent Home
