Abstract Culture is one of the defining concepts of nursing and is becoming more of an issue as demographics and population shift in the United States. If nurses are to provide truly holistic care, they must be prepared to cross the cultural divide and care for patients in the manner that they prefer. Understanding that there is vast diversity within every cultural group, nurses must rise above the stereotypes of any particular culture. Cultural and spiritual assessment is an important step towards providing safe, effective care with optimal outcomes. This paper discusses this point of view through the case study of a Cuban Jehovah's Witness.
Outline:
Introduction
Literature Review
Cultural Assessment
Client History/Overview
Communications
Family Roles and Organization
Biocultural Ecology
High-Risk Behaviors
Nutrition
Pregnancy and Childbearing Practices
Death Rituals
Health Care Practices
Health Care Practitioners
Spiritual Assessment
F: Faith or Beliefs
I: Importance and Influence
C: Community
A: Address/Application
Summary
From the Paper " Rice and beans provide the staple of the diet at home. It is customary for them to have bread at every meal. Salads are rarely served. Yucca and fried plantains are served with meals at least three times per week. In order for her to feel cared for, IH would desire a visit from the dietician. She does not really like vegetables and prefers her meals to be mostly carbohydrates. IH purchases and prepares all of the meals for her family. Cooking is not considered the males role. They do eat at restaurants occasionally on the weekends. Restaurant food choices include Mexican, Italian, and Chinese. They abstain from foods containing blood, which results in a predominately vegetarian diet. Fish is acceptable. Her dietary patterns would be highly considered in her care planning. She would be offended if she was served the traditional regular hospital breakfast of bacon and eggs."
Tags: nursing demographics america, case study, stereotypes outcomes
Abstract This paper presents a project proposal which aims to study racial, ethnic and culturalintolerance in army nursing facilities in Canada. The writer discusses how he would go about conducting his research and discusses the type of questionnaire that he would use. It briefly looks at the reasons why this study is important and describes its budget and time-line. The writer concludes by discussing why he is the appropriate candidate to conduct the research.
From the Paper "This writer is turning to the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada because there will undoubtedly be significant travel expenses involved. Most notably, there are no military hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area and several of the nurses to whom I have already spoken indicated that they would be more comfortable with a "face-to-day" interview than with merely answering the queries via questionnaire. Additionally, the expenses incurred from distributing the questionnaire and from computing the results will have to borne by this writer alone. Because of the Council's commitment to academic excellence and to truth-seeking in all areas of Canadian society, I am turning to your organization for support in seeing to it that this important matter is investigated."
Abstract The paper overviews the Cherokee tribe and shows how religious intolerance has virtually destroyed the cultural foundations of the culture. The paper explains the two points of view with regard to the causes of this situation and believes that both these points of view have to be taken into account to understand how various influences led to the decline of the Cherokee culture.
Outline:
Introduction and Background
Religious Aspects and Intolerance Conclusion
From the Paper "The Cherokee are one of the largest North American indigenous tribes. They are linked to the Iroquoian linguistic family and the Southeast culture area. (Cherokee) "The Cherokee are the only surviving representative of the southern Iroquoian peoples, the split between the ancestral Cherokee and the Northern Iroquoian occurring about 3,500-4,000 years ago" ( Cherokee Religion).
"Archeological evidence suggests that the Cherokee migrated in the distant past from Texas or northern Mexico as well as the area surrounding the Great Lakes. (Cherokee) They then moved south to the Allegheny and Appalachian mountain regions in modern North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and northern Georgia and Alabama. This was where they were first encountered by Europeans when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived in the area in 1540. It is also significant to note that this first encounter with the European culture was a smallpox epidemic that killed approximately eleven thousand Cherokees (Cherokee)."
This paper examines how prevailing Western cultural concepts regarding the soul and spirituality, gender and healing have been challenged and redefined by a growing awareness of cultural alternatives.
Abstract The first part of the paper looks at the various cultural meanings of healing, as practiced by the Hmong people of Southeast Asia and the Daraga people of Western Africa. It examines how these cultures have challenged Western medicine's traditional focus on the body only. In the second part, the paper examines the various cultural concepts of religion and spirituality, and how the growing pluralism of definitions is a challenge for hegemonic Christianity. In the conclusion, the paper examines how these multiplicities of viewpoints have affected and broadened the author's own value system, giving an emphasis on the conflicting cultural concepts regarding gender and sports.
From the Paper "One of the most contentious areas of such cultural collisions involves medicine. Such conflicts are not new, as physicians have already run into conflict with many American religious groups such as the Scientologists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, who prohibit blood transfusions. In a case involving a child, however, a court ruled in 1943 that the state had a right to impose life-saving medical treatment, even if the said treatment conflicts with the family's religion (Fadiman 80).
Since the 1940s, however, physicians, scientists and the general public have begun to understand how other cultures may have radically-different ideas about the causes of illness and disease. The growing diversity of the population now requires physicians and healthcare workers a heightened cultural awareness, to become more understanding of the multitude of health traditions that exist around the world and, increasingly, in the country."
Abstract This paper researches Japanese culture, a culture primarily based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as The Buddha, in his work "The Eightfold Path". According to this paper, The Buddha was not Japanese but, probably, Nepalese and while he is believed to have lived from 543 to 483 B.C.E., some hold that he lived a century later.
Contents:
How Buddhism Creates a Unique "Built Environment"
Japanese Ritual is What Transforms 'Nothing' Into 'Something.'
Smaller Artifacts and Buddhism/Spirituality Symbolic Carvings on Useful Items: Synthesis
Borrowing From Another Asian Culture The Final Frontier of Spirituality: Metaphysics and Quantum Physics
Synthesis
From the Paper "Like so much else in Japanese culture, it is not what it seems, but rather a symbolic combination of the mundane (hair ornamentation) with the sublime, or, as Jones puts it, "transforming the ordinary object into something extraordinary. The object's relationship with its surroundings and its own purpose are integral to kazari" (Jones, 2003, p. 4626), a fact that brings this, too, into the metaphysical realm suggested by the brief passage from The Eightfold Path.
The genius of the Japanese is also cited as their ability to incorporate elements from other cultures and make them not only their own, but central to the Japanese way of life. "Most aspects of Japanese culture came at one time from China--the tea ceremony, for example--and ... shows Japan's fascination with China in the 15th and 16th centuries"
Abstract This paper critically analyzes the research methods used by Warda in her article about what makes up culturally competent care as it relates to Mexican-Americans. It explains how Warda advances the idea that there are four main areas of cultural care that relate to the Mexican-American community and how well they are served by health care professionals. The writer states that these are family, spirituality, communication, and health beliefs and practices. It discusses how, specifically, in consideration of these four areas of cultural care, Warda's research seeks to answer just what traits, beliefs, and practices in the four areas exert the greatest influence on the health care of Mexican-Americans.
From the Paper "If one of the most important goals of any health care provider is providing the best quality of care possible for one's patients, then the health care researcher is no less responsible for ensuring their work is of the best possible integrity. To insure this, the health care researcher must follow stringent protocols in gathering and presenting their information, as well as in extrapolating meaning from that information. Indeed, it is of significant consequence if published mainstream research is competently preformed in all of its aspects. Not only does this insure researcher, institution, and publication credibility, but it insures that the actual "field" application of the conclusions drawn from research work are beneficial to patient care."
Tags: belief, practice, health, family, spiritual, communication
Abstract This paper looks at Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome through the eyes of three university students who are being introduced to it by the author. The writer provides the students with the historical and artistic background to the painting, as well as a brief overview of the painter's life and ideals. The writer also points out similarities between Michelangelo's painting and the fresco "Galatea," by Raphael, and "The Last Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci. The writer describes the reactions of the three students, which show that they are all overwhelmed by the spiritual aura of the painting.
From the Paper "Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 to 1564) was one of the most talented and complex masters of the High Renaissance. Frequently irascible and short-tempered, Michelangelo was often impatient with the shortcomings of others as with his own and his jealousy of Raphael, his dislike of Leonardo and his almost never-ending problems with his artistic patrons, did not quench his ever-burning desire and devotion to great art. As a young man, Michelangelo was apprenticed to the painter Ghirlandaio and soon found himself under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent. When the Medici family fell in 1494, Michelangelo fled to Bologna, where he did some work for the church of San Petronio. In 1501, Michelangelo found himself in Rome and soon returned to Florence because of the possibility that "the city would permit him to work on a great block of marble called the Giant" that no other sculptor (Michelangelo considered himself as a sculptor and not as a painter!) had been able to use. It was this situation which tradition holds led to Michelangelo to exclaim "The statue (i.e., David) was already in the stone. All I did was remove the excess" (Grimm, 325)."
Abstract Religious individuals are known to practice certain ceremonial and traditional behaviors. Much of this is done automatically because as children they were simply told to behave and to think about spirituality in a certain way. This paper examines how spiritual development is most purely experienced on a personal level once the full understanding of the meaning of these practices and beliefs is realized. It looks at how conceivably all these traditional ways of developing spiritually are significant to one development, but spiritual growth simply occurs when the individual inner faith exceeds the longing for the physical world around them.
From the Paper "Silence in spiritual development Silence can be best described as time spent in accordance with God, focusing only on his word quiet reflection. When time is spent in silent reflection, one acquires a state of awareness and knowing that they are in God's presence. This inner stillness and attentive listening brings total surrender to God's word. This leads to spiritual poverty and self-emptying (Duff 2003, 227). It is during a period of silence, we turn from words to seek God's voice and guidance. The sanctuary of silence helps cleanse and invigorate one's spirit. In the Christian Biblical version of the Creation, God 'spoke' and the world came to exist. The center of Christian meditation is to return to this primal state. "
Abstract This paper examines Dylan Thomas and his poetry by analyzing his work through spiritual glasses. It describes the influences of spirituality versus religion. It studies his work "18 Poems" which he wrote in 1934 and how it brought him immediate recognition. It excerpts his poems and analyzes them. It concludes that Dylan Thomas was a very spiritual person influenced mostly by Christian, Jewish and Catholic images.
From the Paper "Every poet is, in a sense, two people: the poet and the persona, or presence, that speaks through the poetry. With Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) both poet and persona tend to scintillate into the sublime and the ridiculous. With the aid of what Thomas called Comrade Bottle, they could unleash themselves into the depths of the subterranean and the grotesquely morbid. Some of Thomas? early verses were unintelligible, so in love with words was he; and critics have often disagreed on valid interpretations of Thomas? work (Ferris, 2000, p.95). As well, the disagreements carry over to valid interpretations of the poet's life. How much of his drunken, often tactless prattle was for the sake of the song, and how much was the poet's gift"and torture"of seeing so much and feeling so deeply that it was all he could do to fend off madness? In a 1933 South Wales Evening Post essay, he wrote: "the borderline of insanity is more difficult to trace than the majority of people, comparatively safe within the barriers of their own common-sensibility, can realise" (Bedford-St. Martin?s, N.D. 2). "
Abstract Nursing has both literal and symbolic meanings. Nursing has been part of the care for people longer than the practice of medicine itself. A nurse with a strong spiritual faith, a firm belief in an afterlife and in the power of faith, can help a patient in ways that other nurses simply can't. This responsibility, then, requires of the nurse the ability to respect, relate, and support the spiritual needs of the patient. The nurse can see the emotional and spiritual toll that illness has upon the patient.
Abstract The paper is a literary review of material dealing with spiritual practice in the workplace. The paper begins by looking at companies themselves and how they handle both employee and customer satisfaction. The paper then turns to what motivates employees and what is important to them, how employers handle their businesses, and employees and their spirituality. The paper works from one area to another and by being specific it enables one to see the scope of business today, from the employer, employee, and customer perspectives, and how spirituality affects this.
From the Paper "Many individuals have been losing the battle with customer retention for quite some time (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988). A large part of this comes from the fact that they do not have a strong link between the services that they provide and the profit that they make. In other words, they do things along their service chain that do not please those that are involved in it (customers, employees) and therefore their profits are lower than what they would otherwise be. Because of this it has become increasingly important for companies to figure out how to keep customers and employees interested in doing business with them and how to keep loyalty at a higher level (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, "
Abstract In this paper, the writer notes that in ancient cultures human life was the center of interest for everything. The writer maintains that the entire construction of civilization was based on the human as the main preoccupation and the most important element in the world. The writer points out that modern concerns about the environment, animals and other conflicts that place humans on an equal position with the rest of the planet were weak or nonexistent many centuries back, when the sole interest that captured the attention of common people was to understand how their own society worked. The writer discusses that in every culture, from the very beginning of the civilized world, humans have tried to achieve control over their lives, to understand how it functions and to dominate it. The writer concludes that the concept of human life has changed dramatically during the past centuries and society has started to develop based on practical progress, material achievements and palpable ideas that appear from the same curiosity that inspired the ancient societies to develop.
From the Paper "The human was the main subject for all the forms of expression in ancient societies, from art forms like poetry and theatre, to practical activities like politics. Their humanist vision left messages about their way of living and thinking, their spirit and preoccupations, ideas and feelings. The human life itself is the very subject they reflect in all of their artistic and intellectual expression.
"Roman and Greek society had almost the same vision about human life and manifested their ideas almost in parallel ways, due to the great influence that the Greek society had over the Roman world. They valued their leisure and commodities in a way that modern civilization would never understand. For them time was relaxed and positive feelings cultivated. In the ancient conception human life was created to enjoy and grow spiritually, not to constrain and suffer as it was conceived in later centuries. They worshipped leisure and inner peace in the same way that modern society worships hard work and effort."
Abstract This paper discusses the issue of whether or not modern art and architecture consider spirituality in their themes. The paper contends that the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and artists Mary Cassatt and Judy Chicago contain a fundamentally spiritual dimension that speaks to the persistence of the human spirit and the linkage of that spirit to nature and to society.
From the Paper "Despite the fact that clearly identifiable religious imagery began to disappear in the course of the modern era many if not precisely most of the major artists and architects of the nineteenth and twentieth century have been ..."
Tags: art, architecture, spirituality, Mary Cassatt, Frank Lloyd Wright, Judy Chicago
Abstract This paper looks closely at the elements of materialism and spirituality. It contends that materialism takes the more significant role in our daily lives. The paper firstly looks at the ideas of psychology, Marx and Nietzsche to prove that materialism is central to our human nature. The author explains that writings negative to materialism usually only deal with the excess of materialism, not materialism itself, to finally conclude that spiritually is important but not vital to existence.
From the Paper "This estrangement between the two spheres of life, the relationship between materialism and spirituality, is as central a divide as one can imagine. From the remains of our earliest writings, these concepts have been illuminated for us by religious figures, philosophers, novelists, and literary critics, amongst many others. The two concepts, however, are often inextricably linked. In our daily lives, it is clear that materialism remains dominant, and it is vital to our survival as a species. Substance, then, is the true reality of the world, as it is used for the medium of explanation. Spiritualism, too, has been shown to play an important role in our lives as well, as faith has been illustrated as a guiding construct for people daily. The following will address the concepts of materialism and spirituality, analyzing the importance or vitality of acknowledging our material nature while allowing that spirituality too has a place ..."
Abstract This paper discusses Watson's definition of spirituality in terms of her theory of transpersonal caring as "a return to reverence and a sense of sacredness with regard to life and human experiences, especially those related to caring and healing work during their most vulnerable moments of life's journey". The paper talks about how spirituality is completely based on one idea: that all human beings and every object in the universe are connected and are also interconnected. Not only does the individual person have a connection to the universe, but the nurse and patient are interconnected in this reverence and sacredness.
