Cultural Desire

Cultural Desire Essay

Cultural Desire Essay

Realization. This is what I learned from the readings. The realization that I am not as culturally aware as I thought. I have always considered myself to be a good nurse. I try to be very thoughtful and caring with my patients. I smile as I interview them, place my hand on their arm or shoulder, and try to find a common ground. This is because as an operating room nurse we don't get long to connect with our patients before they are off to sleep. Working in central and eastern Kentucky and also growing up here, most of my patients are what I call "Appalachian Americans".

As a result of my readings I realized that when I do have patients from different backgrounds such as Latino's, Asian, etc. I am more distant from them than if they were from Kentucky. Maybe I do this because I do not know their culture. They may not like the close contact I am used to providing my patients. I suppose it is a good thing that I do not assume that they would appreciate that kind of care, but I could provide better care to those patients who are culturally diverse if I had more information.

I chose to read Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". This is Maya's personal story of growing up a black female in the American South during the 1930s and 40s. I believe that I have a fair understanding of the African American culture. Although I did not grow up around many African Americans, I have had many black patients and co-workers. Most of my black patients have the same cultural standards as I do. Growing up in the south in the 30s and 40s Maya Angelou faced some deep seated racism. There is no doubt that racism still exists today, but is nothing like it was when Maya was growing up. I suppose one thing that I was not aware of was that black women seek preventive care just as much as, sometimes more than Caucasians (Sambamoorthi & McAlpine, 2003, 482). I am not sure why, but I have always thought African Americans to be very stoic with strong beliefs in the healing powers of faith and religion. That they avoided going to a doctor if possible unless it was dire. I suppose this is a generalization based on my experiences with the African Americans I know and work with. But African American women were as likely as or more likely than white women to receive preventative health services (Sambamoorthi & McAlpine, 482). In Maya Angelous's book she develops an excruciating toothache and must visit a white dentist who refuses to help her stating that he would rather put his hands in a dog's mouth than hers (Angelou, 1969, chap.24). I know this kind of racism happened back then, but is still hard to comprehend someone in a healthcare position could behave that way. It is really hard to fathom what it must have been like growing up dealing with that daily.

I honestly can not identify how I might do things differently when caring for African American patients. I do not feel that I treat them differently than my other patients. However, that could be a problem and a lesson learned from this exercise. If I was more culturally aware of African Americans maybe I could provide more culturally competent care. I have a great deal of cultural desire to learn more so that I can alter my care according to what patients I encounter.

I feel that as an advanced practice nurse my role in reducing the disparities in the care of African Americans or any other cultural group will depend on