BNURS20 Nursing : Develop from Personal Convictions

Construct a mind map as a visual representation that illustrates your personal cultural values, beliefs and behaviors. You should identify at least four (4) values, beliefs and behaviours that contribute to your personal cultural identity

You need to write a personal reflection examining how your personal cultural values, beliefs and behaviors (illustrated on the Mind Map) may contribute or detract from being a culturally safe practitioner in a multicultural health care environment. Ensure that you include those attributes which are developed and those that require further development

Essentially, values refer to the fundamental long-lasting beliefs that a person regards as quite important to him/her (Moyo et al., 2015). Arguably, these values become standards that guide the person with regards to making choices and ordering their lives. It important to note that, values develop from personal convictions. A personal conviction develops into a value when the individual has a consistent growing commitment to it and they regard it an integral element to their lives. Values exist in a range of categories depending on their inclination. For example, there are values that relate to family, career, wealth, happiness and culture. For a person to make a responsible, consistent and rational decision, he/she must be able to articulate their values well. Our case focuses on personal values that relate to cultural identity.

Beliefs

Well, a belief refers to that valuable idea to which a person holds as being true. In the realms of life, people base their beliefs on different certainties spanning from matters of faith to probabilities (Harris, n.d.). Beliefs are known to come from a number of sources including but not limited to what is said by other people, acceptable of societal or cultural norms, personal experiments or experiences of a personal many more. Arguably, a person may have a potential belief, but the only way to way he/she can make it a personal belief is when they accept it as truth are willing to adopt it to become part of their belief system. Needles to say, every individual seeks and evaluates sounds evidence or sound reasons for these potential beliefs in their unique ways. A belief is said to be incorporated into their belief system, the person accepts the belief as a true aspect and exhibits the willingness to defend it. Once it forms part of an individual’s belief system, then it becomes a personal belief.

Personal Behaviors  

Personal behaviors can be defined in an array of contexts. However, in the context of personal behaviors refer to the socially responsible choices of lifestyle that a person makes with the aim of enacting their personal values, acting as so as to “be the change you see in the world” and perhaps fit in the culturally diverse society. In most cases, the acts one display to conform or fit in the society may involve making sacrificial choices as to what is right over what is easy.

How My Personal Cultural Values, Beliefs and Behaviors (Illustrated On The Mind Map) May Contribute Or Detract From Being A Culturally Safe Practitioner In A Multicultural Health Care Environment

Well, with the ever-changing demographics of many countries across the world as a result of globalization, the growing need for a diversely-recruited nursing workforce at all levels; the interest in cultural diversity is wide-ranging and on the increase. As a result of these, in the health and nurse education, the effect of diversity and cultural competence on caring for a diverse population has become central (DeNisco, & Barker, 2013). Arguably, the link between personal values, beliefs and behaviors has been identified to affect the performance of a nursing professional in a multicultural health care environment (Shields, 2008). In a nursing practitioner can either be a culturally safe practitioner in a multicultural health care environment or not based on the cultural aspects regarding behavior, personal values and beliefs that they hold onto. This reflective essay focuses on outlining my personal values, behavior and beliefs and how they may contribute or detract me from being a culturally safe practitioner in a multicultural health care environment.

My Personal Values

As evident in the mind map constructed in part 1 of this paper, I personally have four key personal values that I exceedingly treasure. These values include self-esteem, happiness, family and honesty.

As regards self-esteem, I must say that I am person who has high confidence in my abilities and worth. I really respect myself and at no time would I want to lose my self-worth no matter what.  I must admit that this personal value may largely contribute to my being a culturally safe practitioner in any multicultural health settings. It is clear that in a multicultural health environment, one is prone to meet persons who hold different perspectives (Almutairi, Dahinten, & Rodney, 2015). As such, to fit it in, the practitioner must show high levels moral capacity. I believe the high confidence and self-worth I bear will enhance my moral capacity thus ease of blending well in the multicultural health environment. Also, the personal value of love for family will contribute to my being a safe practitioner as this happens to be a universal value that most or all cultures hold dear. Honesty is the other personal value that is may as well enhance my position as a safe practitioner in a multicultural health environment through boosting my truths worthy and reliability with the rest of the people. Apparently, health care is a fundamental part of human being as it involves people’s lives. As such, any practitioner must very keen to keep high standards of honesty in order to gain any approval from the working environment. Finally, happiness as a personal value I cherish will as well contribute to my being a safe practitioner as it will enable me fit in well with persons of both positive and negative attitudes without any social bruising since a multicultural environment harbors person of all attitudes and one must learn get along with (Moore et al., 2006). 

My Personal Beliefs

  As it was defined before, a belief is that important idea to which a person holds as being true. Personally, I have four major ideas that I regard important to me: I believe in exercising frugality, maintaining a healthy life/ work balance, education and faith. The impact of faith to my being a safe practitioner in a multicultural healthcare environment is both profoundly negative. In other words, faith will definitely detract my being a safe practitioner. Well, this is because, in any multicultural healthcare environment, one expects to meet with persons of different religious or spiritual affiliations with each religion having their own life standards as regards moral obligation and social standing among other aspects (Harris, n.d; Comas-Díaz, n.d.). In this case, since my faith may different with the rest of the persons in the health care settings, there shall be an eruption of conflicts that will impede the collaboration with the rest of the people. The next belief I have is education; the willingness to learn. In essence, this belief may contribute to my being a safe practitioner in a multicultural healthcare environment. It is good to understand that in multicultural health care setting, there exists an array of norms (McGarty, Yzerbyt, & Spears, 2002). As such, to be safe, one must be able to adjust to the existing norms and moral standards which can be achieved through the willingness to learn. The third belief I have is exercising frugality. Exercising frugality will contribute to my being safe practitioner in a multicultural environment by way of  making aligning my economic perspectives with the rest of the persons as  it will reflect my willingness and desire to manage the healthcare’s resources effectively, an aspect that is welcomed by most people if not all. The fourth and last belief I have is the belief of maintaining a healthy life/ work balance. Healthcare is one of the most demanding professions around the world. Most healthcare professionals spend most of their time at work with very little time in their hands to relax and have social life. As a result, they tend to develop many work-related conditions like stress and perennial fatigues that greatly impact on the efficiency at work. This may lead to sluggishness at work something that may not be welcomed by other persons in the multicultural environment. As such, one must look for a way of striking a balance between healthy life and work so as to avoid such conflicts at work.

Personal Behaviors

The four personal behaviors that I have include considerate, sincerity, enthusiasm and caring. Apparently, all of these behaviors may contribute to my being a safe practitioner in a multicultural healthcare environment. For example, being considerate, I am always very careful in my all my endeavors to make sure that I do not hurt or inconvenience other people. Since a multicultural healthcare environment consists of a mix of people, it is always proper to act in a way that accommodates everyone without creating conflicts of interest (Bonder, Martin, & Miracle, 2001). As such, my behavior of being considerate will serve me well as a nursing practitioner. Secondly, being enthusiastic is another behavior that may be a great boost to my being a safe practitioner since it creates an environment of intense approval and interest which are fundamental elements of successful multicultural interactions (Shirey, 2006). The third behavior I consider important that I have is caring. Well, one important of a nursing practitioner, by virtue of the job’s demands, is caring. By having this behavior, I believe I will be a safe practitioner. Finally, being sincere will earn me trust among the people in the multicultural healthcare environment that will in turn contribute to my being a safe practitioner.

References

Almutairi, A. F., Dahinten, V. S., & Rodney, P. (2015). Almutairi's Critical Cultural Competence model for a multicultural healthcare environment. Nursing Inquiry, 22(4), 317-325. doi:10.1111/nin.12099

Bonder, B., Martin, L., & Miracle, A. (2001). Achieving cultural competence: The challenge

for clients and healthcare workers in a multicultural society. Generations, 25(1), 35-42.

Comas-Díaz, L. (n.d.). Multicultural consciousness: Extending cultural competence beyond the clinical encounter. Multicultural care: A clinician's guide to cultural competence, 227-246. doi:10.1037/13491-009

DeNisco, S., & Barker, A. M. (2013). Advanced practice nursing: Evolving roles for the transformation of the profession. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Harris, K. A. (n.d.). Clinical Judgment Faith Bias: The Impact of Faith and Multicultural Competence on Clinical Judgment. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e664752012-001

McGarty, C., Yzerbyt, V., & Spears, R. (2002). Stereotypes as explanations: The formation of meaningful beliefs about social groups. London: Cambridge University Press.

Moore, A., Wayland, B. W., Mickelson, M., DeCapua, G., Felix, A., Concept Media, inc, & Medical Audio Visual Communications Inc. (2006). Cultural diversity and healthcare. Irvine, CA: Concept Media.

Moyo, M., Goodyear-Smith, F. A., Weller, J., Robb, G., & Shulruf, B. (2015). Healthcare practitioners’ personal and professional values. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21(2), 257-286. doi:10.1007/s10459-015-9626-9

Shields, L. (2008). Multicultural considerations. Doing Clinical Healthcare Research, 41-54. doi:10.1007/978-1-137-07173-6_3

Shirey, M. R. (2006). Authentic leaders creating healthy work environments for nursing practice. American journal of critical care, 15(3), 256-267.