Culturally insensitive care can be regarded as one of the contributors to healthcare disparities in the United States because medical professionals’ approach defines patients’ perceived relationships with them and the overall quality of care. For example, according to Cuevas, O’Brien, and Saha, many practitioners tend to provide less patient-centered care to African American patients and are more verbally dominant with them than with European American patients. Considering this, it is pivotal to pay attention to the way you communicate with individuals from diverse multicultural backgrounds. To ensure that I approach everyone equally, I continually engage in self-reflection and try to identify and become aware of all possible biases and stereotypes that may be present in my mind and affect the way I see different people. Secondly, I acknowledge that I may not know all cultural, religious, and other nuances that constitute one’s identity and, therefore, I respectfully and considerately ask patients questions regarding their values, views, and beliefs when appropriate. Overall, the key elements in my approach to culturally sensitive care are equal treatment and respect for individuality.
Another important aspect of culturally sensitive and professional nursing is to be able to accept differences in opinions and beliefs even when they contradict a nurse’s personal values. In my practice, I did not experience any serious culturally defined conflict. Nevertheless, a minor case that I may recall is related to a patient’s disapproval of any medication. He had been prescribed Metformin and some other medicines for his progressing diabetes condition, yet refused to take any of them because was convinced that all drugs are harmful. The main problem was that he did not engage in behavioral interventions as well. Thus, when educating this patient, I accepted his point of view but used his health belief to motivate him to change his diet and start to exercise more. Consequently, I also conducted some research on natural therapies that are deemed effective for treating diabetes. As a result of this experience, I became able to meet the educational needs of patients who prefer alternative remedies to traditional ones.