Running head: CULTURE WITHIN THE SCIENCE OF CARE

Culture within the science of care:

Paul Loleng
000341692
Mohawk College

CULTURE WITHIN THE SCIENCE OF CARE

Culture within the science of care

Everyone in the world is different, there are many things that separate one individual
from another. Categories like; religion, sexuality, names, families, and many other types. To be
more specific, the division that separate people, but can also be a helpful grouping in care, is
culture. The cultures of people dictate their personal beliefs, values, and certain characteristics
that relate to age groups, religions, societies, ethnicities, and personality. Culture is important to
care, because with it, nurses are able to take better care of patients without going against their
personal beliefs and values.
Personal Reflection
Culture can be many different things, and everyone has their own personal cultures that
depend on a variety of factors. Mine, however, has changed throughout the years. Culture to me
are the ideas, values, beliefs and behaviors that relate to; ethnic, social, religious, political, and
many others, characteristics. A persons culture can have many different factors, to put it in
general terms, it is an individuals way of life. Currently my own beliefs and values have a great
impact on my cultural identity. Some of the beliefs I have now has changed since my time as a
kid. Firstly, is religion, I have always been a Christian that believed in the teachings of the
church and the lessons of god. Since I was born in the Philippines, the main religion was and still
is Christianity, the teachings of the bible has been pounded into my brain ever since I attended
kindergarten. Not only that, but when I came to Canada I only attended a Catholic Elementary
and High school, which taught me even more of my religion. Throughout the years, this has
lessened to the point that I only believe in a god. Not the holy deity in any religion, but simply a

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divine being that helped in creating humans. This has made a significant impact on my cultural
identity as a non-religious believer, as Ive been called before, but because of that I now have a
non-biased perspective and an interest in all religions. Secondly, are the things Ive experienced
and learned through my nineteen years of life. Walking this not so long path of mine has shown
me many things, they may be over dramatized, but I take them whole heartedly and they provide
a big impact on my cultural identity. One belief I learned, is that humans are both evil and good.
There can be a lot of gray areas, but when it comes down to it, each one of us is either one or the
other. This came to be, because of the high amount of Japanese anime and fantasy novels, I have
watched and read. This culturally identifies me as a nerd, weeb, or otaku. Another belief is the
common saying, never judge a book by its cover. This has always been a truth whenever I meet a
new person, because no matter what other people say I know nothing about the other person. I
only judge the book once Ive read a few chapters or more. By doing this, I have made many
friends, and been considered friendly and kind. These are the two main beliefs that I have
followed and discovered through my short and continuing life. Furthermore, are what I consider
to be the most important things in my own life. There are only three values that I currently have
and want to achieve. The first one is family, this most likely came from my very own. The people
in most Filipino families are usually very close, because of the mindset that was put into almost
every person in the Philippines. That mentality is that we take care of each other, not just in the
family, but all Filipinos. Making the stereotype that all Filipinos know each other is likely an
actual truth. I was raised as a Filipino and because of that I am very close to my parents and little
sister. Secondly, is to succeed, this value came from my generation of humans. When I went into
high school from the very start of grade nine we were told that we had to succeed and if we
wanted to do that we had to have an education. The teachers and principal's pressured success

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very hard and in doing so it became as one of my lifes goals and values. I do not know for any
other generation, but for the kids that were born in one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six, we
were pressured harshly by our mentors. Lastly, is happiness, there is no special reason, but as a
human this is the most important value that I have. This is because in life, much like anyone else
in this world, I want to be happy. To summarize, both my beliefs and values have a great impact
on my cultural identity as a non-religious believer, nerd, nineties kid, human Filipino. For a nurse
to be culturally sensitive they must have certain characteristics. They have to be understanding,
un-biased, non-judging, the nurse should be willing to try and provide care that the client wants.
For a nurse to provide culturally sensitive care they must actually care for the person values and
beliefs.
Critique
Title of the Paper:
List the name(s) of the author(s):

Source:
Currency:
What is the purpose of the paper?

A critical lens on culture in nursing practice

The author is R Lisa Bourque Bearskin, the
president of the Aboriginal Nurses
Association. Studied nursing at the University
of Alberta. Currently works as the Clinical
Assistant Professor at the University of
Alberta. For over 25 years she has been
practicing nursing, working for First Nations,
Inuit Health as a Community Health Nurse
and for the Alberta Health Services as a
Clinical Nurse Specialist (Linkedin, 2015).
Nursing Ethics
The year of 2011.
Bourque Bearskin (2011), created an article
aimed at the practicing nurses in Canada, she
stated The purpose of this article is to
examine the concepts of cultural competency
and cultural safety by way of relational
ethics (p. 548).
(Bourque Bearskin, 2011, p. 548-559)

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Analysis
The article A critical lens on culture in nursing practice written by Bourque Bearskin in
2011, provides a lot of information on ways a nurse in Canada can make their care more
culturally sensitive. To specify, there are some key ideas in this piece that would be great
concepts to apply to my nursing practice. Two approaches that were addressed by the author are
environment and embodiment. Both can be applied to my nursing practice and substantially
improve it. Firstly, Bourque Bearskin (2011), stated that Environment can be viewed as the
health care systems effect on the quality of nurses relationships with self, individuals, families,
and communities (p. 554). Knowing how the environment is seen as the healthcare systems
effect on the nurses relationships, it can be applied to my practice through forming therapeutic
connections with the patients; friends, spouses, families, communities, and other important
individuals. This is important, because the people that form the clients current environment are
not only the health care providers, but also the persons that supported them before they came to
the hospital. In doing so, I would be able to get to know more about the patient, their values,
their beliefs, their culture, and the people they care for. Which in turn helps the healthcare system
effect nursing relationships better through the involvement of friends and families in the patients
care. Hopefully then, I can give the client the focus and respect that they deserve with help that
can only be provided from their families and friends. Improving their human experience and
providing them care that is spiritually and traditionally acceptable. The main goal is to achieve
cultural safety, by making sure that their environment is positively affecting their important
persons and is completely lack less of feelings such as humiliation and alienation through
culturally acceptable care. Secondly, embodiment as the incorporation of the object body and
the lived body that gives a clients feelings and emotions equal weight with the physical signs

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and symptoms systems (Bourque Bearskin, 2011, p. 555). Embodiment relates the patients
feelings with their physiological health, they are both equally important in providing culturally
sensitive care to the patient. The best way to apply this to my nursing practice is through
following the patient's care plan to ensure that their physical needs are met, but at the same time I
would touch on and discuss the clients feelings and emotions towards the care they are
receiving. In this way the two types of data can be collected. Objective data, which refers to the
facts of the patients, helping the process of giving them physical care. On the other hand,
Subjective data deals with the patients emotions, feelings and their values. In turn, creates a
better, more culturally sensitive experience for the client during their stay at the hospital or other
healthcare facility. Making this key idea important, because the client should not be forgotten
when a nurse is proving care. The two key ideas, environment and embodiment are concepts that
can make nursing care more competent and safe towards culture.
The documents A critical lens on culture in nursing practice written by Bourque
Bearskin, and Culturally sensitive care by the CNO have similarities apart from the general
topic of culturally sensitive care. In fact, the College of Nurses of Ontarios article has a likeness
to the key ideas of Bourque Bearskin. Those two ideas are environment and embodiment. For the
environment, The College of Nurses in Ontario (1999) stated:
The nurse has made an assumption that the clients partner is male and that the
relationship with the mother is one that will be supportive to the entire family. For many
couples in a homosexual relationship, the issue of family can be sensitive. For some
people, family is often their chosen family as opposed to kin. By using the word
partner, and asking the client who would be appropriate for a family meeting, the nurse
shows openness and a nonjudgmental attitude. (p. 10).

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This provides a good relation with the key idea environment, because the concept is mainly
based on the nurse and their relationships with the patients important persons. This touches on
the patients own relationship with their friends and families, the environment they were in
before the hospital. In other words a family meeting would be the gathering of the clients
previous surroundings and merging with it to gather information and knowledge to further
provide better care. The nurse did try to include the family into the patients environment, but
failed to see the patients possible differences in perspective of family. If this was continued, the
nurse would not have brought in a supportive surrounding, but instead a detrimental one. For
embodiment, Culture care preservation means making efforts to integrate the clients preferences
into the plan of care when these preferences are important to the clients physical, emotional or
spiritual health (The College of Nurses of Ontario, 1999, p. 6). By integrating the clients
preferences into the plan of care, it shows that their emotions and feelings are as important as the
science of health. Providing both subjective or cultural, and objective or scientific care embodies
the similarities of both articles. They both center care on the patient and their beliefs and values.
Baroque Bearskin and the CNO have similar ideas on how to provide culturally sensitive care.
Respect is a feeling that every human deserves and needs to function in life. This is
especially more important when a person is sick, dying or in need. Without it, others would feel
offended or not cared for. Baroque Bearskin (2011) provides insight on respectful practice, one
of the letters she defines in the word respect is T- Treat people with dignity and compassion (p.
557). The author most likely included this in her acronym, because it is a guideline that shows
others that they are being cared for with respect. By giving dignity and compassion to everyone
it not only shows consideration for their well-being, but it also shows that the nurse cares. To
implement this to my nursing practice I treat every patient, staff, and living organism with

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dignity and compassion, to show them that they are not only being treated for their illness, but
while doing so they are cared for with the utmost decency and courtesy. You destroy the sickness
without forgetting about the person that has it.
Throughout writing this assignment my thoughts on what culture is and what it deals with
has stayed the same. The College of Nurses of Ontarios, article Culturally Sensitive Care
provided valid ways to provide different ways of treating people with multitudes of different
cultures. However, it did not change my perspective on culture, because my personal thoughts
are almost exactly the same as the ideas that is provided. The CNO (1999) states a few
assumptions about culture. Every individual has a culture and this can be determined by factors
like race, gender, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic, sexuality, and life experiences. It also
constantly changes and will keep on changing as long as you live (p. 3). This is not so different
from my very own thoughts and culture as defined by the College of Nurses of Ontario only
states my personal beliefs in a more formal and detailed definition. However, the article did give
me a lot of information on how to act towards different cultures. It is good to know that my ideas
of culture are close to the CNOs very own.

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References
Bourque Bearskin, R. L. (2011). A critical lens on culture in nursing practice. Nursing ethics,
18(4), 548-559.
R. Lisa Bourque Bearskin. (2015) Linkedin[Profile page]. Retrieved November 8. 2015, from
https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?
id=AAkAAAMKUcsBsZpmSw3HhLYKD4JAfJNwawmyYVw&authType=NAME_SE
ARCH&authToken=1yPt&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical
%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A51007947%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH
%2Cidx%3A2-4-5%2CtarId%3A1447036009069%2Ctas%3ALisa+Bourque
The College of Nurses of Ontario. (1999). Culturally sensitive care, 3-11. Retrieved November
11, 2015, from https://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/41040_CulturallySens.pdf