Culturally Competent Nursing Care and Hispanic Patients

Culturally Competent Nursing Care and Hispanic Patients
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With America becoming more diverse, cultural competency when dealing with different patients is vital, and includes culturally sensitive approach to chronic illnesses, sensory impairment and end of life together with effective communication. Hispanics are a growing community, and though not homogenous Spanish is the first language for Hispanics who have roots from Central and South America. The older Hispanic people tend to be less proficient in English, and understanding Spanish enables nurses to elicit problems and concerns better to Hispanic patients (de Pheils et al., 2009).
Cultural factors affecting nursing care of Latino patients with chronic illness
Impact of extended kinships and family is vital, and there is information sharing among family members when dealing with chronic illness more than Caucasians.
Proficiency in English especially among older patients is a challenge as many are better in Spanish making it difficult to communicate with patients
Cultural expectations on gender roles divide the family along gender lines with male members tasked with making major decisions in the family including health matters.
Spirituality is an integral part of self care, with many people being Catholics and religious practices are intertwined with culture.
Patients with sensory impairment
Hispanics emphasize more on oral communication even when it is difficult to utilize visual methods of communication in comparison to Caucasians for people with sensory impairment as the community does not focus on visual cues.
Similar to other groups, Hispanics with sensory impairment experience uncertainty in communicating because of language barrier and miscommunication. Translation facilitates access to information, and when inaccessible those with limited English understanding have inadequate access to health care.
The role of family in the patient’s wellbeing is vital as Hispanics prefer depersonalized care and this makes it difficult to utilize patient centered care when dealing with patients with sensory impairments.
Patients at end of life
Family centered decision making prevails in most homes as Hispanics prefer making decisions through consensus and extended families take care of family members even for the terminally ill (Gallant et al., 2010).
Hispanics typically prefer to die in the company of family members at home where possible, whereby death is seen as a continuum of life (Gallant et al., 2010). On the other hand, dying in the hospital is perceived as a bad omen and is undesirable. In most cases, there is use of religious artifacts and prayers and religiosity is uti...