To apply cultural competence to one’s practice every day, one must fully understand it. Cultural competence can be defined as applying knowledge-based clinical skills to any particular group of ethnical, racial, or culturally diverse patients. The nurse must not force any of their own ideas or beliefs on to those patients, and make the patient feel as comfortable as possible with their own beliefs and ideas.(Maurer & Saunders, 2012) One of the greatest cultural competent acts I have ever seen was a nurse that had Muslim patient. In order to make this patient feel comfortable he actually placed a blanket on the floor of the patient’s room and sat with the entire family on the blanket and sat while they prayed. Seems simple enough, but not many of us would have thought of that idea. That family requested that nurse every time they came in for treatment.
Cultural preservation is the deliberate act of preserving ones beliefs or cultures (Huber, 2009). I believe that nurse did his best to help preserve this patients beliefs by helping him continue his way of life even while in the hospital.
Cultural accommodation is accommodating ones cultural beliefs based on the knowledge and understanding of the culture in order to make the patient more comfortable in their current settings (Huber, 2009).. Accommodating a patients beliefs can also be done as an act of kindness on the nurses’ part. This nurse accommodated this family by giving them a place to pray that was more like home even though they were an inpatient in the hospital. He also ensured that the patient was on a regular diet and then called to the dietary department to make sure that they were not given any pork or meat because it must be blessed before consuming.
Cultural repatterning involves working together with a patient about beliefs in way that does not offend them but helps them understand that a