A patient is admitted to a patient care area. The nurse has never provided care to a patient from this patient's culture before and is concerned. How should the nurse proceed?

Question

1. Briefly review the patient's culture and its expectations of health care providers.
2. Have another nurse provide care to this patient.
3. Approach the care of this patient as with any other patient admitted to the care area.
4. Locate an interpreter to assist with communication.

Answer 1

1
Rationale 1: Cultural competence is needed to provide empathy, understanding, communication, value, and caring in health care. The nurse lacks the five components of cultural awareness: cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounters, and cultural desire. The nurse would benefit from a brief review of the patient's culture and its expectations of health care providers.
Rationale 2: There is no reason for the nurse to ask another nurse to provide care to this patient.
Rationale 3: The nurse should not approach the care of this patient in the same way as any other patient because the patient's cultural norms may be different.
Rationale 4: Locating an interpreter might be beneficial but does not help with the nurse's knowledge deficit.