Research Problem - Caring For Ethnic Minority Patients

The research issue is a nurse’s lack of cultural competency, which has a negative impact on the treatment and care of patients from ethnic minority groups.

The study’s goal was to look into how psychiatric unit nurses and medical unit nurses assess their own skill in dealing with patients from minority backgrounds.

Most of the researchers agree that nurses lack cultural competence, which contributes significantly to disparities in treatment and care for ethnic minority and ethnic majority patients. Those in the minority category receive lower quality of treatment and care when compared with the majority population. The disparity in the provision of healthcare services is also observed in certain instances such as stage of disease, place of treatment, age, and socioeconomic status.

Nursing Framework

It is the responsibility of nurses to enhance equality in the provision of healthcare services and treatment regardless of ethnicity, culture or any other aspect that might influence inequality.

Research Questions and Hypothesis

The research question was, “how the psychiatric unit nurses and medical unit nurses assess their competency with regards to patients whose backgrounds are from the non-western minority.”

H0: Nurses exhibit intercultural incompetence

H1: Nurses do not exhibit intercultural incompetence

Identification and Discussion of Variables

The variables through which the research focused on were the availability of advice, in-service education, symptom assessment, differences in illness, knowledge of medical traditions, and intercultural knowledge. These variables were viewed in relation to the years of work experienced by the nurses.

Identification and Discussion of the Appropriateness of the Design

An exploratory mixed method design was chosen for this experiment. The method triangulation for this study was appropriate for the reasons that research acknowledges that self-assessed competency studies are comparatively reliable.

Discussion of the Validity of the Research

The researchers produced a questionnaire that reflected as closely as probable to the real life experiences of the nurses working with the patients who are non-western. The researchers also sought assistance from two experienced researchers on the questionnaires, and they were advised to make the wording clearer and reduce the number of statements. Furthermore, a small pilot study was carried out at it helped in further refinement of the questions. Further linguistic refinement was also carried out before the commencement of the actual study.

Efficiency of the study

The study efficiently resolved the research question. The research did answer not only the research question but also found the flaws which are to be corrected. The recommendation was that in order to resolve the insufficient intercultural competency amongst the nurses both on-job mentoring and formal education are indispensable in strengthening intercultural competency in nurses

Legal and Ethical issues of the Study

The research ensured that the respondents and interviewees confidentiality as observed throughout the study. Both the respondents and the interviewers were informed both in writing and orally about the study and its purpose. Therefore they were allowed to make an informed consent on taking part in the study. The study also sought legal clearance or rather go ahead from the hospital Privacy Ombudsman.

Cultural Aspects of the Study

The research focused on culture and ethnicity concepts as synonyms. The target group was the minority who are non-whites cultural or ethnic groups.

Sample Description

The main subjects used for this experiment were the nurses from the Psychiatric unit and those from the Medical unit.

Description of the Procedures

The first step was conducting focus group interviews which were three in number. Then a Likert-type questionnaire which contained a total of thirty-five statements and covered six topics was developed. The questionnaires were then submitted to the nurses from both the psychiatric unit and the medical unit. The collected data was the run through a statistical software known as SPSS, and it was the basic tool for analyzing the quantitative data. The qualitative data was analyzed through the hermeneutic thematic analysis.

Summary of the Results

The outcome of the research showed that the nurses who participated in the research exhibited insufficient cultural competency. The research also showed that both on-job mentoring and formal education are indispensable in strengthening intercultural competency in nurses.

How the results of the Research may Impact Future Nursing Practice

The results of this finding will impact the future of nursing practice in a positive way. One is that more emphasis would be placed on both on-job mentoring and formal education so as to strengthen the intercultural competency amongst the nurses. The research also makes an awareness regarding the magnitude of nurses’ intercultural incompetence and therefore challenging them to improve and acknowledge its reality. Lastly, this research will spark further research to resolve the nurses’ problems.

Application of the Research to my Nursing Practice

Through the research, I have learned that intercultural competency is essential in realizing the ultimate goal of nursing as a professional practice and that is equality in service. With the awareness regarding the reality of intercultural inequality, I will be able to take caution and avoid the habit of accepting intercultural incompetence as a common practice.

References

Alpers, L., & Hanssen, I. (2014). Caring for ethnic minority patients: A mixed method study of nurses’ self-assessment of cultural competency. Nurse Education Today, 34(6), 999-1004.