Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Introduction: Culture-sensitive (CS) and patient-centered (PC) care are considered essential to achieve high-quality equitable care. The purpose of this study was to determine how expert nurses incorporate CS/PC care into their assessment and care planning practices, especially for culturally diverse and marginalized patients. Methodology: Using a qualitative, descriptive design, we conducted a focus group at the October 2019 Transcultural Nursing Society Conference. Participants ( n = 9) discussed how they instilled cultural sensitivity and patient-centeredness into their assessment and care planning skills. Results: Participants revealed attitudes, knowledge, and skills associated with CS/PC assessment and care planning. They also identified specific strategies for translating CS/PC theory into assessment and care planning practices. Discussion: Three principles and many pragmatic strategies for incorporating CS/PC care into daily practice emerged from the data. Nurses may find these principles and strategies helpful in integrating CS/PC care into their daily care of patients in busy clinical settings.

A Commentary on Narayan and Mallinson’s (2022) “Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study”

“…Recently, an article was published in Journal of Transcultural Nursing by Narayan and Mallinson (2022) entitled “Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study.” This is an outbreaking qualitative study using a nursing focus group approach which was conducted at the Transcultural Nursing Society Conference. The pioneering vision underlines with the perspective that combines culture-sensitive (CS) and patient-centered care (PCC) regarding assessment and the planning of care in culturally diverse settings.…”

“…The findings of this study provide us with relevant information. The major contribution of this study relates to the variety of attitudes (caring and humility), knowledge (self-knowledge, cultural norms/individuality and cultural assessment and care planning), and skills (relationship-building skills, assessment skills and care planning skills) concerning CS/PCC that are necessary for nurses in clinical practice ( Narayan & Mallinson, 2022 ). It was shown in different studies that even when nurses were familiar with and sensitive to the impact that cultural differences may have on a patient’s health care priorities and practices, they often did not know how to incorporate cultural competence principles into their practice.…”

“…Another interesting point of view by Narayan and Mallinson (2022) is that caring plays a vital role to CS/PC assessment and care planning. Karlsson and Pennbrant (2020) also stated that caring is the core of nursing and is a specific attribute of nursing.…”

“…In this article, Narayan and Mallinson (2022) focused their attention to the nursing process, particularly in assessment and planning in culturally diverse settings. Less attention seems to have been given to nursing diagnosis.…”

“…Only then will we have the ability to improve the quality of nursing care in patients since we are living in societies with a progressive increase in cultural diversity. The study of Narayan and Mallinson (2022) was limited by its small size sample, and this subject should be further investigated in larger communities all over the world.…”