Concept Analysis Of Cultural Humility In Nursing

This assignment presents a modified method for conducting a concept analysis of ONE concept that is important and useful to nursing.  The concept for this assignment must be supported by a published nursing theory. The selected concept is identified and then the elements of the analysis process are applied in order to synthesize knowledge for application as demonstrated through the creation of model, borderline, and contrary cases.  Theoretical applications of the concept are also discussed. Non-nursing theories may NOT be used. The paper concludes with a synthesis of the student’s new knowledge about the concept. The scholarly literature is incorporated throughout the analysis. 

Concept analysis, as its name suggests, is the process of critiquing and evaluating a concept. Concept analysis is an important activity in the nursing profession. It can help in providing an insight on various concepts and explain their relationship, significance, and application in day-to-day activities. As a fully-fledged discipline, nursing has so many concepts that define and give it a meaning. Each of the concepts is essential because they play a significant role in the development of nursing. Cultural humility is one of the outstanding nursing concepts. The concept which was originally coined in 1998 by Jann Murray-Garcia and Melanie Tervalon means the ability to create an open (other-oriented) interpersonal position as far as cultural identity is concerned. Cultural humility has, therefore, become one of the useful concepts in nursing. Its application has helped in improving the efficiency and quality of the healthcare services provided to the patients. The concept of cultural humility can be properly understood if analyzed using Madeleine Leininger’s Transcultural Nursing Theory.

Cultural humility is a concept whose use has positively impacted on the quality of healthcare services in the country. The idea was coined and accepted as a standard practice in nursing because of its contributions in the enhancement of the understanding of the healthcare practitioners on the matters to do with multicultural relations. The USA is a plural society made up of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is only possible for a nurse to effectively serve all the patients and satisfy their needs if at all they possess excellent cultural humility skills. Each and every person has a set of cultural views and values which determine the way they perceive and understand health (Heslop & Lu, 2014). If a person, for instance, believes in spiritual intervention a a way of healing, it can only be possible to heal if the medic accepts to fuse the element of religion or spirituality in the treatment process. However, not all nurses can do this, unless they have a sound knowledge of cultural humility and be ready to use it in their day-to-day practice.

In accordance to the research that Montenery, Jones, Perry, Ross & Zoucha (2013) carried out, it was established that cultural humility is not similar to cultural competence because the two have some differences. Whereas cultural competence mainly focuses on training and knowledge as its main values, cultural humility centers on co-learning and introspection as its core values (Montenery, Jones, Perry, Ross & Zoucha 2013). That is why, unlike cultural competence, cultural humility does not concentrate on the building of understanding on minor cultures, but broadens its scope to encompass personal awareness, growth, and reflection. It’s a life-long process that has long-term focus on the appreciation and understanding of different cultures. In this regard, all the healthcare practitioners should be ready to apply the principles of cultural humility because it stands to benefit them a great deal (Foronda, Baptiste, Reinholdt & Ousman, 2016). It has long-term benefits that can be enjoyed by the practitioner and the clients. Therefore, for a country like the USA, it can be a wise idea if there is a pool of culturally-humble professionals who are ready to understand, accept, and appreciate the cultural views of other people from a more diverse point of view.

Attributes of Cultural Humility

According to the research conducted by Yeager & Bauer-Wu (2013), Melanie and Murray-Garcia came up with the idea of cultural humility because there was a need to strengthen cultural competence, which had been a major concept applied by the healthcare providers in their practice. These scholars were convinced that cultural humility would boost the nurses’ understanding on the best competencies to employ when attending top patients from different cultural backgrounds. Its main focus is, therefore, to enhance the quality of interactions between the nurses and the patients (Yeager & Bauer-Wu, 2013). Such understandings are supposed to be mutual since they are aimed at benefiting both the patients and the healthcare providers as well. That is why the concept of cultural humility always aims at establishing a life-long experience to those who believe in it (Isaacson, 2014). As a nation, the USA should have a team of healthcare providers who deeply understand everything about cultural humility and practice it as required. Cultural flexibility, understanding, and tolerance are attributes that should be condoned in nursing because they are necessary for creating a conducive environment that accommodates everyone and [provides them with a satisfactory healthcare service regardless of their diversities.  

Cultural humility is a concept which has been in use for many years. Since its inception, the idea has become popular with many nurse and other healthcare professionals who are interested in creating an impact on their patients especially those who have diverse cultural backgrounds rather than their own. As a concept, cultural humility has its own attributes with which it is identified. The first attribute of cultural humility is introspection. This simply refers to the process of examining and observing one’s own emotional capabilities. Cultural humility is introspective because it involves an element of personal reflection. A person who believes in cultural humility must take time to perform a self-reflection on their understanding and accommodation of the culture of other people with whom they interact. The other attribute of cultural humility is that it is collaborative. Meaning, it is a concept that incorporates the element of co-learning (Montenery, Jones, Perry, Ross & Zoucha, 2013). Cultural humility can give one an opportunity to engage one another ad get to meditate reason together, and acquire the necessary skills that can be of mutual benefit to each of them. That is why it is arguable that cultural humility is not focused on minor cultures, but strives to enhance a collaboration and understanding between people from diverse backgrounds. Last, but not least, cultural humility is a life-long process that does not have short-term, but long-term goals to achieve. A culturally-humble practitioner should be committed to undergoing through a lengthy learning process-journey with a focus on the appreciation, growth, and understanding of diverse cultures.

Antecedents and Consequences

The analysis of the concept of cultural humility cannot be completed without addressing the antecedent and consequences that surround it. Antecedent refers to an event that takes place prior to and precedes a behavior. On the other hand, a consequence is the aftermath or effect of a behavior. When conducting an analysis for the concept of cultural humility, it is important to consider all these two because they are essential in providing a deep understanding. The antecedent that should be used in this analysis, therefore, is the poor relation between a nurse and a patient which resulted into misunderstanding during the treatment (Kools, Chimwaza & Macha, 2015). The antecedents for cultural humility, therefore, include the following: the involvement of a nurse, effective interpersonal communications and relations; ability to effectively and objectively evaluate and understand the feelings and perceptions of a patient; and creation of a cordial and therapeutic relationship with the patient. The consequences, on the other hand, are proper understanding between the nurse and the patient; healthy interpersonal relations between the two; acceptance of the patient’s cultural views and values.

Identification of the empirical referents is also is an important stage in the process of concept analysis. It can help in analyzing the concept of cultural humility because there is a need to identify the strategies to use in observation and measurement. All these are necessary because they can help in providing the researcher with a multidimensional approach towards the analysis of the concept. The empirical referents for cultural humility mainly revolve around patient outcome (Heslop & Lu, 2014). The use of cultural humility concept can be measured by evaluating the level of safety of the patient. At the same time, it can be measured using the level of satisfaction of the patients. Lastly, the measurement of this concept can be determined by the kind of reactions that the patients give when they are attended to by a nurse. Each of these referents should be examined in details to ensure that an effective measurement is done.

The concept of cultural humility has been applied in the nursing setting for many years. Although there are nurses who have been using it well to positively impact on the lives and experiences of their patients, there are others who have not been using it well because of incompetence of negligence (White, 2014). This analysis gives an example of a set of borderline and contrary cases that demonstrate the use of cultural humility in nursing.

Empirical Referents

The borderline event is that a nurse communicated well to the patient, appeared caring, and accepted to listen to the opinion of the patient regarding the way she wanted to be treated. Although the nurse was not comfortable with the demands, he never treated the patient because he had objected to the demands. What he did was to refer the case and hand it over to another nurse who was ready to handle it (Robert, Tilley & Petersen, 2014). The case is borderline because it has some of the attributes of cultural humility. The contrary event is that a nurse refused to heed to the demands that the patient had posed because it was not in line with his cultural views although it conformed to the patient’s culture. This is a contrary event because it lacks all the three attributes of the concept that had been identified in the discussion.  

The concept of cultural humility can be explained and properly understood by using the Madeleine Leininger’s Transcultural Nursing Theory. According to this theory, nursing should be culturally-accommodative. Meaning, the services should be congruent with the cultural views of the patients being attended to. A nurse who respects the patient’s cultural views delivers quality services because such ac service satisfies the needs of a patient. Hence, to achieve this, the nurse should be tolerance and respectful. The ideas expressed in this theory can be helpful in understanding the concept of cultural humility because they both advocate for the respect, understanding, and appreciation of other people’s cultural views. A nurse who is committed to the principles of cultural humility does a commendable job because he or she puts the clients’ interests primary to their own.  The main concept in the theory is caring. According to the theorist, the primary goal of nursing care should be to care for the patient. Caring, according to the theorist, is the best way through which a nurse can cure and heal the patient because it helps in creating a favorable environment that suits the patients. Hence, the ideas expressed in this theory resonate so well with the concept of cultural humility. The concepts in the theory such as caring, understanding, tolerance, appreciation, and acceptance can bring an insight on cultural humility.    

Conclusion

Concept analysis is an important activity in nursing. All the nursing professionals should have a deeper understanding of this activity because it can enable them to critique, analyze, and understand various concepts in the field of nursing. Cultural humility is one of the core concepts in nursing. All the nurses should know about cultural humility and do their best to practice it as much as they can. The lifelong understanding, reflection, and acceptance of other people’s culture can be a core value in nursing because it can help in improving the quality of services rendered to the patients. However, to know about everything about such concepts, a nurse should know how to conduct a concept analysis since it is the only way through which such concepts can be comprehended and applied in nursing practice.

References

Foronda, C., Baptiste, D. L., Reinholdt, M. M., & Ousman, K. (2016). Cultural humility: A concept analysis. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 27(3), 210-217.

Heslop, L., & Lu, S. (2014). Nursing?sensitive indicators: A concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 70(11), 2469-2482.

Isaacson, M. (2014). Clarifying concepts: Cultural humility or competency. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(3), 251-258.

Kools, S., Chimwaza, A., & Macha, S. (2015). Cultural humility and working with marginalized populations in developing countries. Global health promotion, 22(1), 52-59.

Montenery, S. M., Jones, A. D., Perry, N., Ross, D., & Zoucha, R. (2013). Cultural competence in nursing faculty: A journey, not a destination. Journal of Professional Nursing, 29(6), e51-e57.

Robert, R. R., Tilley, D. S., & Petersen, S. (2014). A power in clinical nursing practice: concept analysis on nursing intuition. Medsurg Nursing, 23(5), 343-350.

White, L. (2014). Mindfulness in nursing: An evolutionary concept analysis. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(2), 282-294.

Yeager, K. A., & Bauer-Wu, S. (2013). Cultural humility: Essential foundation for clinical researchers. Applied Nursing Research, 26(4), 251-256.