Evaluating Culture From Nursing Perspective

Evaluating Culture from the Nursing Perspective

Research findings indicate that in the early 1980s, smoking was a prevalent problem among Poland adult citizens that resulted in a lower life expectancy to about 60 years due to high rates of smoke-associated cancers, heart, and respiratory illnesses (Jassem et al., 2014). However, in the mid-1990s, the smoking culture in the country changed, reducing tobacco use by 10% from 1990 to 1998 and the figure of tobacco consumers from 14 million to 10 million from the 1980s to the 1990s (Kinder, n.d.). The drastic changes in the smoking culture were prompted by the ratification of a novel tobacco-control law in 1995 that required cigarette manufacturers to post a ‘large health warning’ on cigarette packaging, prohibited smoking in health facilities and enclosed workstations, prohibited advertising tobacco through electronic media, and banned the sale of tobacco to underage (Kinder, n.d.). Overall, the passing of the tobacco legislation in 1995 helped change the smoking culture in Poland.   Evaluating Culture From Nursing Perspective

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Social and Political Factors That Contributed to A Smoking Culture in Poland

Numerous social factors promoted a smoking culture in Poland, including smoking acceptability by specific social networks and peer influence. According to Jassem et al. (2014), approximately 30% of females and three-quarters of all males between the age of 20 and 60 smoked at least nine cigarettes daily in Poland in early the 1980s. Therefore, there was a high level of smoking acceptability among these populations, which supported a smoking culture in the country. The other social factor that allowed a smoking culture in Poland in the 1980s was peer influence. Given the high number of smokers, people could easily influence their peers into smoking; therefore, exacerbating the smoking problem in the country. A smoking culture in Poland was also promoted by political factors including lack of political support to mitigate the problem and lack of stern laws governing tobacco use. The Polish government had remained silent despite warnings by the health department of the accelerating problem (Kinder, n.d.). Additionally, Poland lacked strict legislation governing tobacco use; therefore, paving the way for excessive tobacco use in the country. Overall, a smoking culture may be influenced by social and political factors.    Evaluating Culture From Nursing Perspective

Cultural Bias Reflection

In the current era of globalization and technology advancements, nurses are increasingly attending to patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, an issue that presents numerous challenges to caregivers and services delivery. Some of the strategies I adopt to overcome cultural bias are performing a cultural competence self-evaluation to determine my strengths and weakness when dealing with individuals from varying cultures and continually enhancing communication skills through learning other people’s languages. An example of a culturally biased incident is when I attended to a patient with limited English language proficiency. I collaborated with a language translator to overcome cultural bias. While several strategies can be applied to overcome cultural bias, dealing with some patient populations is more challenging than others. For instance, it is difficult to deal with patients with whom you cannot communicate using the same language or patients who are still trapped in backward cultural beliefs such as those who disapprove of conventional medicine.

People are likely to misuse or put into good use cultural information they learn about others. As suggested by Kaihlanen et al. (2019), people may choose to use this data to understand others and give them a sense of belonging. However, some people may use the information to stereotype others; therefore, discriminating against them based on their cultural beliefs or practice. As a nurse, cultural knowledge informs my practice and improves interaction with others as, through cultural knowledge, I get to understand others better.Evaluating Culture From Nursing Perspective

References

Jassem, J., Przewoźniak, K., & Zatoński, W. (2014). tobacco control in Poland—successes, and challenges. Translational Lung Cancer Research3(5), 280–285. https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2218-6751.2014.09.12. (Attachment)

Kaihlanen, A., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: a qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions of cultural competence training. BMC journals. https://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12912-019-0363-x

Kinder, M. (n.d.). CASE 14: Curbing tobacco use in Poland.

Evaluating Culture From Nursing Perspective