A nurse was referencing a situation that occurred at the office she worked at. The topic was about in-vitro fertilization and how the treating doctor did not want to be involved in the patient’s delivery due to the fact that five embryos’ were terminated and three remained. Would all eight embryos have survived in one pregnancy? Could the embryos’ have been frozen to be used at another time? This brings up a different cultural competence involving religion. Many people may not think of the embryo as being alive or a baby yet. This would make caring for the individual patient difficult. Now what happens to the nurse that is working on a GYN floor and a woman comes in with complications following an abortion? The scenario would be the nurse is a Christian and does not believe in abortion and she is not there for an abortion at the moment, she is there for a complication as a result of the abortion. So in thinking about cultural competence on the nurse’s specific need, will she deny taking care of this patient because she does not believe in abortions, or will she take care of her because the patient came in after the abortion done with complications? Those are some of the questions that we as nurses need to ask ourselves because as a manager of the
Now, this makes wonder what would happen to the nurse that is working on a GYN floor and a woman comes in with complications following an abortion? The scenario would be the nurse is a Christian and does not believe in abortion and she is not there for an abortion at the moment, but she is there for a complication as a result of the abortion. So in thinking about cultural competence on the nurse’s specific need, will she deny taking care of this patient because she does not believe in abortions, or will she take care of her because the patient came in after the abortion was done with complications? Those are some of the questions that we as nurses need to ask ourselves because as a manager of a team if your employee asks for special accommodation for religious beliefs, we have to review it with the employee and the human resource department. Regardless of what the culture is, if we can find a holistic approach to treat our patients and respect their differences, we will be able to provide excellent care (DeNisco & Barker, 2013).
References
DeNisco, S. M., & Barker, A. M. (Eds.). (2013). The slow march to professional practice. Advanced Practice Nursing (2nd ed., pp. 6-17). [Vital Source Bookshelf].