A nurse is working in an urban clinic with a diverse population. What action by the nurse is most important?
A.
Determine patients' definitions of health and desired outcomes of health care.
B.
Explain policies such as appointment cancellations to ensure compliance.
C.
Learn to speak one or two common languages of the patients in the clinic.
D.
Read about different folk remedies common among the populations seen.
ANS: A
Divergent populations enter the health-care system with differing beliefs about health care and wellness and differing expectations for the outcomes of such experiences. Understanding these expectations will help the nurse plan care that has a better chance of meeting these expectations. Learning languages and becoming familiar with folk remedies is helpful as well, but these two solutions are very limited in scope and a nurse cannot hope to become proficient in all the languages/behaviors of every population seen, leaving some patients with a lessened experience. Explaining policies is important too, but simply telling someone the rules does not take his or her cultural norms into account and may not be successful.
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