Adapting to different cultural beliefs and practices requires flexibility and a respect for others viewpoints. Cultural competence means to really listen to the patient, to find out and learn about the patient's beliefs of health and illness. To provide culturally appropriate care we need to know and to understand culturally influenced health behaviors.

There is a difference between stereotyping and generalizations:

Stereotyping is a commonly held public belief about a group of people that can negatively influence the way in which you relate to a person. Stereotyping is a negative act and should be avoided at all costs.

Generalization

In studying cultures you may come up with a list of generalizations. These may or may not be true for your residents. It is up to you to find out. If you don’t check it out, you may become guilty of stereotyping, which is assuming that the generalizations for a particular group of people apply to your particular resident.

Here are some examples (Manchester Health Department & Baylor University, n.d.):

Generalization about Hispanics:

They are Catholic.
They are emotionally expressive.

Generalizations about Arabs:

They must pray five times a day on a mat.
Their honor is dependent on upholding female modesty.

Generalizations about Asians

They believe pain is to be accepted and tolerated.
They use a traditional healing method of rubbing a coin over the body.

Generalizations about African Americans

They have great respect for elders.
They use prayer as a common way to heal illness.

Steps to Providing Culturally Sensitive Care

Your goal as a CNA is to provide individualized care. This care is not based on generalizations about race and ethnic background. You must not assume that a resident’s needs are the same as others from a certain culture. You cannot assume that all resident's from a particular culture have the same needs. You need to adapt your care to what you learn about your resident as an individual. However, learning about different cultures gives you a great starting point.

There are four steps to improving your skills in working with patients from various cultural backgrounds:

Become aware of your own biases.
Learn about cultures different than your own.
Develop new ways to deal with differences that impact the care you give.
Self-awareness requires a willingness to look at ourselves with honesty. As humans, we all have “blind spots.” We believe our cultural beliefs and values are the norm, but this is not true for everyone.

We need to keep an open mind and force ourselves to become more aware of other cultural practices. Studying other cultures is a starting point. Your facility may have resources on other cultures available to you. There are nursing organizations dedicated to teaching others about cultural issues. You can find information about different cultures on the Internet. Remember that cultures are constantly changing. They change with each new generation, and change over time. They are influence by other cultures. This is another reason that you cannot generalize about a particular culture.

Developing Cultural Awareness

Ask your residents about their preferences. In most cases they will be happy to teach you about their culture. Your newly admitted resident is an elderly Chinese man. Consider asking him about his preferences for diet. He might prefer a traditional Chinese diet, or he may enjoy “American” food. Use the family as a resource. They can assist you in understanding the resident's preferences, both related to culture and in general.

Developing cultural awareness is very important. It is important that you learn about different cultures and do not assume the characteristics of a cultural group apply to everyone with that cultural background. Awareness is one of the keys to caring for patients from different cultures. Simply recognizing that cultures are different is the first step in the process.

You start to notice a trend about your African-American patients. Many of them seem to bring their bible to the hospital. You are beginning to develop awareness about a culture. Many African-Americans have a strong faith and may be more upfront about their beliefs than perhaps members of your own culture.

You are caring for a Hispanic woman who speaks little English. There seems to be a least one family member around all the time. Ask the family member to help you communicate with the patient and learn more about her likes, dislikes, abilities, and other preferences regarding her care.

Use other staff members as a resource. All of us come from various cultural backgrounds. Ask other staff members about their own cultural backgrounds or about what they have learned about different cultures. Your co-workers may have a wealth of information.

You have recently moved to the southwest U.S. from the northeast. You have a large number of Native American residents on your unit. One of your team members is Native American. You know she was raised on an Indian reservation, but you have never asked her about that experience. You decide to ask her about her experience and to give you some tips about the culture she was raised in.

-Source: Basic Concepts for Cultural Awareness (from RN.com 8/18)