Implementing Culturally Competent Care into Nursing Practice: How Do We Do It?

In order to provide effective, culturally competent nursing care, nurses must first possess the knowledge of what the recipient perceives effective and culturally competent care is. In addition, nurses must have the mental capacity to implement this type of care at every opportunity possible, with the goal of obtaining optimal patient outcomes. However, it’s possible that attempting to provide culturally competent nursing care to such a diverse population could impose a mental strain on nurses in their attempts to meet such a large demand. This may also result in some perceived care needs not being met by providers, and may or may not lead to poor outcomes in areas such as communication, planning, assessments, as well as other areas (Easterby, et. Al., (2012). Easterby, et. al.(2012) also states that poor communication in any form puts clients and staff at risk for feeling vulnerable and frustrated during their interactions.

According to Kuriakose (2011) communication is the number one key to providing culturally competent care to a diverse population, with enthusiasm, respect for other cultures, and sensitivity toward their needs following close behind. With the multi-tasking role nurses already have inherent in their jobs, how effective are nurses implementing this additional cognitive task in the work environment? Easterby suggested a way to ensure that nurses are gleaning these important skills, is to embed them in nursing curriculum along with a global clinical project to see the skills in action (2012). Kuriakose (2011) suggested that this skill set would be inherited more effectively if patients were able to provide detailed information about their needs. The best practices need to be explored so that optimal patient outcomes are experienced.

Ultimate patient outcomes should be the priority with every patient care experience. If this goal is not met the practices should be explored to determine how best to meet goals. All healthcare providers across the spectrum should make this a priority when providing care in every environment.