Week 6: Cultural Health Practices and Beliefs

Picture 1: Outback View of the Burqa. Inkcinct Cartoons Australia (2010) 

This week gave a brief overview of the issues in healthcare regarding a person’s culture, faith and religious practices focusing on death and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).   The videos were particularly interesting as I am a degree qualified naturopath with an interest in palliative care.  

I was disappointed not to hear more homeopathic research.  In the palliative care video, I admired the candour of the nurse and bravery of the patient to articulate their needs.  I reflected whether I would be as emotionally capable to assist.  Also I questioned whether in reality, CAM or any patient cultural health practices are treated with the respect this week advises.  

My experience with the lack of ingestion therapy CAM use in hospital (Samueli Institute and Health Forum, 2010), was backed up in Soklaridis, Kelner, Love, & Cassidy (2009) and Hart (2012), with manual therapy more widely accepted (Hart, 2012).  I have experienced the compassion of nurses in palliative care at Redcliffe Hospital but none asked cultural/spiritual belief questions around the death experience for the patient.  Nurses are taught to promote holistic care in the Standards for Providing Quality Palliative Care for All Australians (Palliative Care Australia, 2005) but more could be done to improve assessment of spirituality and culture (Matzo & Witt Sherman, 2015).

From the notes, I became aware of the trap of assuming patients from a religion or culture will have the same needs as the majority or their perceived needs. (Matzo & Witt Sherman, 2015). 

In conclusion, this week provided a reminder of some of the diverse spiritual and cultural needs of patients and a recognition that my job as a future nurse is to be more aware of those wants and needs on an individual basis.  I intend to reflect more on my attitudes and values around provision of a cultural and spiritual support and mentally investigate my ability to complement and support a palliative care process.

Picture 2: Religious Diversity GoGraph (2016)

References

Hart, J. (2012). Patients and Evidence Motivate Hospitals’ Increase in CAM Services. Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 18(1), 21-23.

Matzo, M., & Witt Sherman, D. (Eds.). (2015). Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life (4 ed.). NY: Springer Publishing.

Palliative Care Australia. (2016, Jan). Standards for providing quality palliative care for all Australians. Retrieved from Palliative Care: http://www.palliativecare.org.au/Portals/46/Standards%20for%20providing%20quality%20palliative%20care%20for%20all%20Australians.pdf

Samueli Institute and Health Forum. (2010). 2010 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Survey of Hospitals: Summary of Results. USA: Samueli Institute.

Soklaridis, S., Kelner, M., Love, R., & Cassidy, J. D. (2009). Integrative health care in a hospital setting: Communication patterns between CAM and biomedical practitioners. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 23(6), 655–667.