Practicum Experience Time Log and Journal
Healthcare delivery continues to improve as healthcare providers seek new methods to advance healthcare. One of the ways that healthcare providers seek to improve healthcare delivery is by implementing culturally sensitive healthcare delivery methods. The model of nursing theory that supports culturally sensitive care is the model of Transcultural Nursing by Madeleine Leininger. The model of Transcultural nursing developed by Madeleine meets the expectations of culturally sensitive care because it suggests that a nurse must provide treatment in line with the cultural beliefs and values of a patient (Tucker et al., 2011). The healing process can be accelerated when a nurse can relate to the beliefs and values of a patient. The purpose of this paper is to select and describe a nursing theory, outline and detail goals and objectives as well as create a detailed timeline for the practicum experience.
Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Transcultural Nursing
The model of Transcultural Nursing improves healthcare delivery by fostering a close relationship between nurses and patients. Patient-centered, culturally sensitive healthcare helps health care systems assess how they serve, or fail to serve, diverse cultures in a community (Busher, 2016). Due to cultural diversity, it is easy for a nurse to accidentally offend a patient or their family by overstepping on the boundaries of their cultural beliefs. Since caregivers can’t learn all the cultures in the world, they should be equipped with skills in handling culturally-sensitive patients and their families. The model affirms the need for training a transcultural nursing faculty to improve healthcare delivery.
Practicum goals and objectives
- I will assess and write short reports on how healthcare providers deal with culturally-sensitive patients. With the help of my preceptor, I will learn the dominant culture of the community which visits the health facility.
- I will educate a culturally-sensitive patient on the need for self-care and apply the Transcultural Nursing model to achieve a successful interaction.
- I will utilize the coaching-teaching function to help a patient transit from dependence to independence. All through, I will apply the Transcultural Nursing model with guidance from my preceptor.
- I will harness my professionalism by performing a culturally-appropriate and complete physical exam on a patient with the preceptor analyzing my skills.
- I will utilize a screening tool and educate a patient who is at risk of contracting a preventable disease during my clinical experience.
- I will assist in pediatric pain management as a way of gaining hands-on skills in understanding how pediatric patients communicate when in pain.
- I will utilize communication techniques and achieve a rapport with the community during my clinical experience.
Week 1 Journal Entry
My practical clinical experience began with a quick tour of the health facility from my preceptor. She was quick to notice my enthusiasm for learning cultural competence, and she pointed out that cultural competence is essential to providing quality healthcare services. In relation to objective six, I discovered that pediatric pain management is different from cultural competence because toddlers are yet to adopt any culture. However, it is essential to maintain cultural competence when dealing with the family of pediatric patients. In line with objective one, I assessed the dominant culture in the community and was well able to adapt to the culture.
Conclusion
Clinical competence requires education, knowledge, critical thinking, and continuous evidence-based practice. However, the requirements for clinical expertise require cultural competence. Nursing requires a transcultural faculty to improve on practitioner-patient relationships, which in turn improves healthcare delivery.
References
Busher Betancourt, D. A. (2016). Madeleine Leininger and the transcultural theory of nursing. The Downtown Review, 2(1), 1.
Tucker, C. M., Marsiske, M., Rice, K. G., Nielson, J. J., & Herman, K. (2011). Patient-centered culturally sensitive health care: model testing and refinement. Health psychology, 30(3), 342.