DISCUSSION POST NURSING

In your practice, it is essential that you have cultural awareness and sensitivity while communicating and caring for your patients. This discussion examines the topics of cultural competence, ethics, and LGBT issues, and how you can apply the skills you learned in this course to specific case scenarios using ethical and cultural considerations.

1. Hilda Gomez, a monolingual Spanish-speaking patient, came in to the clinic three days in a row to complain of abdominal pain. The first two times, the nurse practitioner used her young, bilingual daughter to translate. The nurse practitioner treated the patient for the “stomach ache” she described. The staff in the office did not understand why she kept returning with the same problem. Finally, on her third visit, the nurse practitioner located a Spanish-speaking interpreter. It turned out that Mrs. Gomez needed treatment for a sexually transmitted disease but was too embarrassed to talk about her sexual activity with her daughter as interpreter.
   1. Reflecting on this experience, explain how you would handle this scenario in the future. Think about the challenges associated with communicating with patients from a variety of specific populations.
   2. What strategies can you employ as a nurse to be sensitive to different cultural factors while gathering pertinent health information?