Sunday, 31 January 2016

Cultural Health Practices and Beliefs

In this module I learnt about the importance of recognising patient’s faith and cultures in order to achieve person-centred care in the health care workplace. NICE (2011) recognises that “treatment and care should take into account people’s needs and preferences”. From the weekly lecture, I have understood that this can include a number of areas of a person’s life including: dietary requirements, preference for gender, preference in medical procedures, culture-bound syndromes, and alternative therapies. For example, some religions cannot eat certain meats or must have it prepared in specific ways, some religions only allow for female nurses with female patients, or some faiths do not support autopsy or organ donation after death. Furthermore, I have learnt that there are certain preferences in medical procedures that are determined by different cultures. Although in the medical world these procedures are deemed acceptable, religions such as Buddhism, for example, refrain from using narcotic analgesics. I also found it worthy to note that patients have the right to choose and refuse certain therapies and procedures even though it is to improve their health.

It was interesting to learn about how much an individual’s culture and beliefs impacts on health care. This would be beneficial for my future career as a Registered Nurse because it is important to respect the patient’s personal beliefs and culture. Additionally, as a nurse I would be required to not only see the patient as a patient with an illness, but also as a “dignified and capable person” (Wolf, 2012, p.15) which is the core of person-centred care. If a situation like this were to come up in the future during my career as a Registered Nurse, I would ensure that I recognise the cultural beliefs of patients and establish mutual respect in order to come up with a care plan that meets their needs and requirements.


Word count: 307


References:

NICE. (2011). Person-centred care. In NICE (2011) Organ Donation for Transplantation. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. NICE clinical guideline 135. Retrieved from


Wolf, A. (2012). Person-centred care: Possibilities, barriers and effects in hospitalised patients. University of Gothenburg. Sweden: Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Axel_Wolf/publication/265110604_Person-centred_care_Possibilities_barriers_and_effects_in_hospitalised_patients/links/546f45fc0cf2d67fc03106fc.pdf

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