Culturally sound nursing

      The cultural exploration for this week required a different perspective than the one with which I am used to. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That being said, I was already very familiar with the culture for this week, due to me being a part of said culture. This week inspired me to look at this culture from a healthcare perspective, viewing the cultural attributes from the outside as someone who was not familiar with the culture itself. Due to this, I sought to express the findings in my research without specific jargon so that anyone outside of the culture could clearly understand.     I chose to focus my literature finding on the significance of temples in the Latter-Day saint culture, without expressing my bias that these buildings are very important to me personally. With such a perspective I was able to simulate, in a way, how I can give unbiased nursing care and to accompany cultural understandings with simple terms...

      Week 2 has consisted of a deeper study into the significance of cultural diversity, paired with a cultural analysis of our chosen final culture. I began my research in the UVU online Fulton library in search of an article that would represent adequate ideas of the importance of cultural diversity. I found one that was published directly aiming to educate nurses and other healthcare professionals. Focusing mostly on proper translation, avoidance of microaggressions, and assessing health literacy. Most of these techniques have been taught to us in the program, especially in establishing proper therapeutic communication, but the idea of a microaggression had not yet been brought to my attention.     Microaggressions can often be so overlooked and sought to be genuinely positive comments. Phrases such as "your English is so great" or "where are you originally from" may seek like a friendly inquisition, but these undermine an individual's character to solely on...

     The week has begun with an introduction to the transcultural course, in which we will take a deeper look into the cultural varieties that one may face in a nursing career and other general life experiences. Each week will examine the cultural background and differences in differing religious groups, various international backgrounds, and other attributes that make each individual unique.     We have formed a team consisting of 4 members each, with which we will work in this course in order to gain a cooperative understanding of the transcultural world of nursing. The other students that I am working with have similar goals and pursuits, many of which also desire to peruse a career as a nurse practitioner such as I am also working towards. As we work together, we will be able to gain a wider range of transcultural knowledge, especially as we focus on Western Samoa for our final group project.