Essay on Multicultural Health: Key to Quality Care & Patient Satisfaction

Introduction

Multicultural health refers to the provision of services by focusing on a patient’s cultural differences. It is essential to provide multicultural health because it results in patient satisfaction, improved clinician-nurse communication, and better education experiences. Nursing is a profession that requires the skill set of cultural competence to provide quality care to patients from different racial, cultural, and language backgrounds. Diversity is a significant element of multicultural health because it is associated to improved access to healthcare for different cultural groups. in multicultural health, worldview is essential because it explains how patients as well as nurses view themselves, and the world. Delivering health care communication ensures that the health providers consider the worldviews of patients from different cultures, and provide holistic care. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of multicultural health by discussing the worldview of three different cultures, religious practices of different cultures and its impact on health, and ways to deliver health care communication.

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Worldview and Multicultural Health

Worldview is the outlook about life. In multicultural health, worldview shapes a patient’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions regarding the treatment process. Abi-Hashem (2017) affirmed that worldview shapes the meaning of health, and illness, the treatment and therapy expectations, attitudes towards life, and the expectations, as well as the role of the caregiver. The author asserted that knowing a patient’s worldview as it applies to multicultural begins with understanding their religious faith, value orientation, cultural heritage, traditional customs, and social norms. The author added that clinicians need to understand their worldview then compare it to the patient’s to provide efficient, and quality care. Furthermore, Atanga and Ayong (2017) discussed the Leininger’s Sunrise model, a holistic research guide related to the theory of culture care. According to the author, the model requires nurses to expand on their worldview to understand, and provide efficient cultural care. The sunrise model comprises of technological and philosophical factors, economic factors, kinship, and social factors, cultural values and beliefs, political, legal, and educational factors (Atanga & Ayong, 2017). Seemingly, to understand worldview in multicultural health, nurses need to incorporate both generic and current professional care to respond to the patient’s needs. For health care providers to understand their worldview and that of the patients, cross-cultural training is important to grasp the full extent of patient’s beliefs and attitudes regarding treatment.

Worldview of Hispanic, Asian, and African Cultures

Regarding similarities, Hispanics, Asians, and African cultures believe that spiritual and religious influences play a significant role in their health. Medina (2017) indicated that most Hispanics are Roman Catholics who believe in God for wellness. Additionally, Africans believe in not angering the ancestors to achieve wellness (Nwoye, 2017). More so, Hispanics and African culture believe that illness is brought by sinful and immoral behavior.

Regarding differences, Asians believe in traditional healing practices. They believe in the yin and yang balance. Their belief is that illness is caused by external factors and forces that disrupt the body’s natural functioning (Lamar Soutter Library, 2020). Additionally, in African cultures, their worldview on health is that when ancestors are angry they bring ill health to the living (Nwoye, 2017). Their belief is that when they fail to live a moral life, their ancestors are infuriated and become vengeful. Also, they believe that when they die, they will join their ancestors in the land of the dead (Nwoye, 2017). More so, the author asserted that during illness, they believe in spirituality and religious beliefs for cure to wellness. Furthermore, Hispanics believe in anointing of the sick and baptism of infants during life threatening situations (Medina, 2017). Also, the author stated that they believe that illness is God’s will and divine punishment brought by sinful behavior.

Religious Practices of Arab, Amish, and Roma Cultures

Regarding similarities, both Arabs, Amish, and Roma cultures believe in a higher power. Amish and the Roma cultures believe in sacraments, baptism, and confession. More so, regarding their religious practices, Amish and Roma cultures believe that blood and blood products are acceptable during treatment.

Regarding differences, Arabs follow the Islam religion. Swihart and Martin (2020) indicated that regarding religion and spirituality, Arabs believe in complete submission to God, reward and punishment, Muhammad as God’s messenger, oneness of God, and that the Quran is the final revelation of humanity. These religious believes impact their health as they see health providers as the helpers of God’s will (Swihart & Martin, 2020). More so, Arab’s religious practices make them believe that female patients require attention from female physicians. Regarding Amish, their religious practices include emphasis on the holy bible, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the son of God, community worship is important, and believe in baptism and communion (Swihart & Martin, 2020). Their religious practices impact their health because they believe that blood and blood products are individual choices (Swihart & Martin, 2020). When seeking treatment, each individual decides on the type of care that they need. Concerning the Roma cultures, they believe in Roman Catholicism. Their religious practices include dedication to creeds, belief in Apostle leaders and tradition to liturgy (Swihart & Martin, 2020). The Roma culture religious practices impact their health as they believe that suffering is a punishment from God.

Ways to Deliver Healthcare Communication to Native American and Indian Cultures

Delivering health information requires the understanding of the historical, cultural, and spiritual factors that influence health. Swihart and Martin (2020) stated that Indians who practice the Buddhism culture believe in holistic health. For Native Americans and Indians, one way to deliver health information includes class education. Weiner (2017) indicated that teaching Native Americans about their health would help them learn more on public health. Another way is through community collaboration. Working with the cultures in the community would create awareness on health. The third way is through lecture projects that would help them be knowledgeable on their health.

Conclusion

The paper compared and contrasted the worldview and religious beliefs of different cultures across the world. From the research, there is no doubt that healthcare providers deal with people from different ethnic, spiritual, and cultural backgrounds. However, developing a multicultural health worldview has often been challenging. Due to that, there is an increased need for health care professionals to be culturally competent to provide quality and holistic care to patients from different cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence is a skill that requires willingness by health professionals to make them learn the attitudes, beliefs, and customs of their patients. In today’s multicultural society, nurses need to provide culturally congruent care to patients from diverse backgrounds. The challenge encountered with integrating multicultural health is incorporating the cultural needs of the patient to make them satisfied. Cross-cultural training is significant to help nurses acquire specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes in providing efficient care. Overall, cultural accommodation in a multicultural health environment improves patient care, quality of care, and advances the patient-health provider relationship.

References

Abi-Hashem N. (2017) Worldview, the concept of. In: Leeming D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9

Atanga, J., & Ayong, Q. (2017). overcoming nursing care challenges in a multicultural health care setting: A literature review. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2d55/d3ee40938d1477612228ede4f48b5db43193.pdf

Lamar Soutter Library. (2020, June 15th). Cultural approaches to pediatric palliative care in Central Massachusetts: Chinese. Retrieved July, 19th 2020, from https://libraryguides.umassmed.edu/diversity_guide/chinese

Medina, C. (2017). Belief and traditions that impact the Latino healthcare. [Power Point Slides]. https://www.medschool.lsuhsc.edu/physiology/docs/Belief%20and%20Traditions%20that%20impact%20the%20Latino%20Healthcare.pdf

Nwoye, A. (2017). An Africentric theory of human personhood. Psychology in Society, 54, pp. 42-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-8708/2017/n54a4

Swihart DL, Martin RL. (2020). Cultural religious competence in clinical practice. [Updated 2020 Mar 27]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan-. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493216/

Weiner, S. (2017, September 5th). Culture and cures: Healing Native American health. AAMC. Retrieved July, 23rd 2020, from https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/culture-and-cures-healing-native-american-health