Essay Sample on Cultural Beliefs and Pressure Ulcer Prevention: Sensitivity and Competency for Care Teams

Introduction

Patients Cultural beliefs can have a significant impact on the prevention and management of pressure ulcers, especially on the care that the team members (unit champions team, wound care team, implementation team, and unit-based team) mentioned provide. And can be fully accepted by the patients. These factors are mainly related to sensitivity concerns and cultural competency that the care team and health professional need to take into consideration mostly when treating a patient from another culture. Cultural competency can be generally described as the capability of understanding, effectively interacting, and communicating with patients across cultures. It includes the care team and health professionals being aware of the world view of other people and develops attitudes that are positive towards the differences in culture. Sensitivity concerns, on the other hand, are when a person is sensitive about issues relating to others. As stated by Dr. John Macdonald, "Treat the whole patient not just the hole in the patient," the health professionals and care team working in the prevention and management of chronic wounds, for example, pressure ulcers need to practice the above phrase practically. On this account, the essential part in treating the patient wholly is the team members working with the patient to have an in-depth understanding of the caregivers, patients, and their family culture, mainly concerning issues that may be important in the planning of care. Most of these issues may be related to who is perceived to be in-charge according to the patient, pain, and pain management. Also, the caregivers should be aware of the patient's tradition around the utilization of herbal medication, cultural beliefs about specific calendar dates or days of the week, and customs related to specific footwears (Coutts, n.d).

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According to most patients, especially the geriatric people believe the doctors are the ones in charge as they know best thus are reluctant to participate in a decision that impacts their care. This can be solved by talking and understanding the patients and their family relationships to help in integrating the patient into the process of preventing and managing their condition. Secondly, tradition assessment about treatment rationale and modalities is a meaningful discussion with the patient when establishing a plan of care as most people have strong beliefs about certain medications (Coutts, n.d). A few societies are exceptionally apathetic about the pain of pressure ulcers, while different cultures give off an impression of being progressively narrow-minded of it. Both of these cultures give an appraisal challenge to health professionals and care teams to provide the correct treatment in the perfect sum that the patient will use to accomplish the best help with pain relief. Another challenge is healthcare providers understanding the understanding and perception of the patients of their condition and the pain cause. Also, some particular day has specific meanings to different people thus can interfere with the care plan of a patient. If the healthcare providers are aware of all the traditions, customs, and beliefs of a patient, it will be more comfortable in creating their care plan and be sensitive concerned about their culture and adhere to cultural competencies.

Conclusion

Generally, using HIT (health information technology) in improving care and outcomes to all patients is a developing research program drive by new policies of transformation, for example, the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) act (Bowles et al. 2015). These transformative policies demand the implementation of HIT solutions and EHR (electronic health records) to primarily improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of care. Using informatics in preventing and management of pressure ulcers generally enhances patient care and outcomes. Firstly, the use of informatics tools, for example, EHR affords both the patient and healthcare providers with an opportunity to develop decision support that ranges from algorithms, reminders, or forms of alerts that offer guidance to evidence-based care (Bowles et al. 2015). The use of telehealth (provision of care at a distance) promotes the remote monitoring of patients, thus facilitating pressure ulcer treatment, prevention, and management as one of the chronic diseases affecting geriatric individuals who are unable to visit healthcare centers frequently. In general, the use of informatics has a great positive impact on improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of care provided to patients with pressure ulcers.

References

Bowles, K. H., Dykes, P., & Demiris, G. (2015). The use of health information technology to improve care and outcomes for older adults. Research in gerontological nursing, 8(1), 5-10. Retrieved from; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431690/

Coutts, P. (n.d). The Effects of Cultural Background on Patient Communication and Adherence to Treatments. Retrieved from; https://www.woundscanada.ca/docman/public/wound-care-canada-magazine/2005-vol-3-no-2/200-wcc-2005-vol3n2-the-effects-of-cultural-background-on-patient-communication-and-adherence-to-treatment/file.