Cultural Diversity In Health Care

Culture has been defined in many different ways, yet it remains hard to describe. A basic definition of culture could be the music, language, economy, fashion, religion, and art of a community. More thorough analysis reveals, however, that although culture encompasses those phenomena, it also includes intangibles that are even more subtle and sometimes abstract. Culture is the shared symbols and meanings that people create in the process of social interaction, and orients people in their ways of feeling, thinking, and being in the world. Culture
Has been described as that which occupies the space between people in the world. Anthropologist Renato Rosaldo explains that Culture lends significance to human experience by selecting from and organizing
Culture determines values and behaviors, but other factors within a culture influence behavior patterns as well. These include age, gender, education, occupation, residence, level of acculturation, social class, life experiences, individually held beliefs, and practices including religious. Knowledge about cultures and its impact on interactions with health care is essential for nurses, whether they are practicing in a clinical setting, education, research, or administration. Cultural diversity addresses racial and ethnic differences; however, these concepts or features of the human experience are not synonymous. It is critical that nurses understand that culture is neither static nor deterministic. That is, just because a client is Chinese, Sioux, Amish or Romanian, that person does not necessarily act or believe like most people from the same culture. Moreover, an individual’s culture does not necessarily have the same importance to that person at all times or in every situation. Rather than assuming anything, communicate a recognition that people live their ethnicity differently, that the
Ethnocentrism refers to two related phenomena. First, ethnocentrism means the tendency of people to assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do and has the same
World view logic and culture. For instance, A family that eats a big Christmas dinner of a ham and sweet potatoes in the afternoon of Christmas day might assume that everyone celebrates the Christmas holiday that Ethnocentrism refers to two related phenomena. First, ethnocentrism means the tendency of people to assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do and has the same worldview, logic, and culture.
A subculture may be large or small, clustered together or scattered, but its members share some cultural facets such as experience, belief, language (or lingo), practices, and