Racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity are aspects widespread in the United States. This may be attributed to the immense size and diverse heritage in the U.S. Cultural diversity is essential since people can learn from each other. However, despite the increased growth in the diversity of the country’s population, healthcare professionals are being left behind in the growth. Due to this, the nurses need to become more culturally sensitive with patients from different cultural groups and become culturally competent to offer quality and safe care to all patients, including those from minority groups such as Hispanic Americans.
Culture shapes nurses’ perception of illness, suffering, and dying and affects their nursing practice as culture influences how healthcare providers perceive illness. Cultural competence refers to the ability to understand, communicate, and interact with people from varying cultures. It is essential as it helps build relationships with people across cultures. Cultural sensitivity refers to the awareness of cultural differences and similarities that exist without positive or negative value. This is essential in nursing as it enables respect and function with patients from other cultures.
Healthcare disparity refers to differences between groups in health insurance and access to quality healthcare. Latinos experience reduced healthcare insurance as opposed to the disproportionately higher levels of obesity and diabetes mellitus. Nurses should consider the culture-specific values of kindness, friendliness, respect, and modesty when attending to Hispanic American patients.
The Office of Minority Health(OMH) plays a role in enhancing cultural competence. OMH serves to improve the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that assist in eliminating disparities. They also offer knowledge on being responsive to the health beliefs, practices, and needs of diverse patients.
Nurses should be aware of how to handle patients from different cultures and offer quality healthcare irrespective of their cultural group. Culture shapes nurses’ perception of health. The ability to interact with patients irrespective of their cultural groups is essential to nurses. Hispanic Americans experience reduced healthcare insurance, and nurses should consider their core cultural values, such as friendliness, when attending to them. The OMH eliminates health disparities of racial and ethnic minority groups. Embracing cultural diversity is essential in the nursing field.