Allied health professionals are confronted with different death and dying...

Allied health professionals are confronted with different death and dying practices. An effective allied health professional recognizes the importance of understanding different cultural practices, and learns how to evaluate the death, dying, and spiritual beliefs and practices across the cultures.

Read the two specified case histories and choose one for this assignment.

Chapter 4, "Stories of Abby: An Ojibwa Journey" and Chapter 14, "Stories of Shanti: Culture and Karma," by Gelfland, Raspa, and Sherylyn, from End-of-Life Stories: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries (2005), from the GCU Library.

Identify your role as a health care professional in supporting Abby's or Shanti's dying rituals, and in creating strategies for displaying respect while still providing quality care. Identify communication strategies necessary in caring for your select person. Integrate your strategies as you develop a care plan describing how you would approach the situation and care for the patient. Review the "Care Plan" template prior to beginning.

Include the following in your care plan:

Communication: family and patient

Treatment options that align with the specific culture

Education: family and patient

Family roles in the process

Spiritual beliefs

Barriers

Cultural responses

Any additional components that you feel would need to be addressed (from your perspective as a health care professional)

As a healthcare professional, I must have an understanding of the patient's cultural practices when it comes to care delivery and dying rituals. For this assignment, I will analyze the case of "Stories of Abby: An Ojibwa Journey". In supporting Abby's end-of-life rituals, I will create a care plan that consists of the components of communication with the family and patients, treatment options, family and patient education, roles of the family, spiritual beliefs, barriers to healthcare, the anticipated cultural responses and any additional components in healthcare.

Communication: family and patient

Sensitive and respectful communication will be a key component in communicating with Abby and her family. While communicating, I will take into consideration the Ojibwa's culture which puts more emphasis on the respect of the family and the elders. I will ensure that I inform both Abby and the family of medically correct information about her health and the available treatment options. For me to maintain cultural sensitivity during communication, I will seek more information on the patient's attitudes, beliefs, and values and acknowledge individual differences. Both non-verbal and verbal communication should aim at meeting the individualized needs of the patients. The provision of culturally sensitive care enables me to provide high-quality care while at the same time reflecting on my own culture, preferences, beliefs, and values (Brooks et al., 2019). The inability to provide culturally sensitive communication negatively impairs the care provided and reduces family and patient satisfaction with the care provided.

Treatment Options and Education

The treatment options that I will recommend will align with Ojibwa's culture and will take into consideration other alternative medicines utilized by Ojibwa's culture. This will pave the way for integrating complementary and traditional practices in the delivery of healthcare services and this achieves resilience, sustainability, accountability, equity, efficiency, and quality of care services. The provision of care through traditional and modern medicine should be regulated and doing this by the healthcare system will meet the needs of the aging population, enhance the management of non-communicable diseases, improve accountability in care provision, and improve equitable access to care services (Park & Canaway, 2019). Provision of education is an important aspect of the plan of care and as a nurse, I will educate Abby and her family on her health condition and the available treatment options. Patient education is crucial in increasing the patients' and nurses' satisfaction with the care provided and patient education programs decrease the healthcare providers' liability. Patient education increases their compliance with the medication administered and this enhances the quality of life of the patients (Fereidouni et al., 2019). Additionally, patient education enhances the continuity of care provided and reduces disease-related complications.

Family Roles and Spiritual Beliefs

The roles of the family should be considered and their views incorporated in care provision. Family plays a very crucial role in Ojibwa's culture and family members are major decision-makers in care provision. In all the care processes, I will ensure that the family's information and emotional needs are met. Family members must be informed about the patient's progress, therapeutic and diagnostic program, illness prognosis, and any changes in care provided. It is the right of the family members to be given sincere answers to any questions answered. The emotional needs of the patients are met by fulfilling the wishes of the parents and relatives on how they would want to relate to the patients. The family members would prefer to be with the patients during the entire hospitalization period, giving hope for the patient's recovery and feeling that nurses are genuinely concerned about their patients. The spiritual beliefs of the patient should be respected and incorporated into care provision. Abby's spiritual needs can be met by giving the patient and the family an opportunity to perform Ojibwa prayers and rituals and arranging for the patient to be visited by spiritual leaders in the hospital. Fostering spiritual well-being is associated with positive outcomes such as a decline in stress, pain, and negative emotion and great tolerance to physical and emotional demands among the patients. Unmet spiritual needs result in adverse outcomes such as increased depression risk, reduced quality of life, and reduced perceptions of spiritual peace (Rachel et al., 2019).

Barriers

There are various barriers to providing culturally competent and sensitive care. In Abby's case, the provision of culturally sensitive care can be prevented by language barriers and difficulty in finding ways to incorporate Ojibwa's tradition in healthcare. Language barriers can be eliminated through medical interpreters that close the cultural rift between the healthcare providers and the patients. The translation process ensures that information is delivered with high levels of technical accuracy and culturally specific paraphrasing. Nurses can assess the effectiveness of the medical interpreters by examining how the patients respond to the interpreters' words both verbally and non-verbally. The medical interpreters just like other healthcare providers are obliged to foster patient confidentiality. As a nurse, I can incorporate Ojibwa traditions in care provision by considering the values and needs of the patient in care provision, learning more about Ojibwa culture, asking questions other than making assumptions where necessary and collaborating with other healthcare providers in care provision.

Cultural Responses and Additional Components

It is crucial to consider the patient's cultural response to her illness and the line of treatment. This will be done by seeking more understanding and respecting Ojibwa's cultural beliefs on healing and diseases and ensuring that these aspects are respected. When the patients start the treatment program, they experience problems in establishing a therapeutic relationship. Counselors and other members of staff in the hospital guide the nurses toward the journey of self-acceptance. Simple gestures such as facial expressions, small talk, and handshakes are an indicator of an established rapport between the patient and the nurses. Other aspects that I will consider in the provision of care services are the patient's wishes and preferences as far as care provision is concerned as well as other personal and cultural values.

Conclusion

Provision of culturally sensitive care to Abby from Ojibwas culture should adhere to respectful communication and patients and family members have the right to assess medically correct information. The treatment options available to the patient will incorporate both traditional and modern medicine. Patient education will be essential in educating the patient and the family more about their health condition and the treatment options available. Education is important in increasing the patients’ and nurses’ satisfaction with the care provided and this decreases the healthcare provider’s liability. Family plays a crucial role in care provision in Ojibwas culture and the family members are the major decision makers. As a result, the family's information and emotional needs should be met by the nurses. The patient's spiritual well-being will be fostered by allowing her to pray and participate in other Ojibwa culture rituals and inviting a spiritual leader to appeal to the patient's needs. In the care plan, I will also consider barriers to providing culturally competent care and patients' cultural responses to care provision.

References

Brooks, L. A., Manias, E., & Bloomer, M. J. (2019). Culturally sensitive communication in healthcare: A concept analysis. Collegian, 26(3), 383-391. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1322769617303153#bib0270

Fereidouni, Z., Sarvestani, R. S., Hariri, G., Kuhpaye, S. A., Amirkhani, M., & Kalyani, M. N. (2019). Moving into action: The master key to patient education. The journal of nursing research, 27(1), 1. https://journals.lww.com/jnr-twna/fulltext/2019/02000/moving_into_action__the_master_key_to_patient.7.aspx

Park, Y. L., & Canaway, R. (2019). Integrating traditional and complementary medicine with national healthcare systems for universal health coverage in Asia and the Western Pacific. Health Systems & Reform, 5(1), 24-31. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23288604.2018.1539058

Rachel, H., Chiara, C., Robert, K., & Francesco, S. (2019). Spiritual care in nursing: an overview of the measures used to assess spiritual care provision and related factors amongst nurses. Acta Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis, 90(Suppl 4), 44. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6625560/