The healthcare units often follow distinct values as well as ethics, in order to cater the patients’ needs. For instance, the setting chosen for this paper is of a nursing home. As per the team meetings, several issues have been pinpointed by the members. Firstly, a staff member refused to work and clean in a gay man’s room, due to his religious belief system. Secondly, an elderly patient oftentimes abuses the Asian and Black staff members of the nursing home. However, it can be understood how he was influenced by the discrimination and racism, during the eras of the 1980s and 1950s. Even a manager belonging to the head office complained about the unhygienic environment of the nursing home. It was also overheard that the two co-workers of the nursing home were arguing whether the dementia patients should be left alone or cared for seriously. Ultimately, they will die because of their disease. Thus, it is better to save money instead of wasting it on them.
There are a handful of values, which the nursing home’s staffs must learn, vividly. The staffs should know how to remain empathetic towards their clients. Empathy is the ability of a nurse to be sensitive and understanding towards a patient’s mental and physical well-being. At times, the patients’ family members may have to be faced by these staffs, as well. Another important aspect is communication. Both the patient and nurses or nursing-homes’ staff members should interact with one another, continuously (Holloway and Galvin, 2016). The staff members must be thoughtful about their learnings so that they can utilise the same. For instance, the nurses provide information which is complete and accurate in nature. However, this thought is extracted from the fact that they consider the patients’ rights to make informed decisions. Thirdly, it is critical thinking that the nurses must be considered every single time while raking decisions. Right from the responsibility to accountability is dependent on the out-of-book knowledge. After all, each and every ethical parameter may not be included in the nursing courses. Sometimes the real-life scenarios may differ from the bookish knowledge, vividly.
An elaborate range of values can be observed in the nursing field. For example, the client or patient must be respected, especially in regards to the human dignity. Even sympathy and altruism are part and parcel of the nursing profession (Marsh, Lanitis, Neasham, Orfanosand Caro, 2014). A healthcare professional must be devoted to his or her professional obligations. It is crucial for the staffs to continuously, improve their practical and scientific competence. On the other hand, a patient’s autonomy should be respected along with the kindness and compassion. In the healthcare industry, it is quite important to pay more attention towards the individuals who are vulnerable in nature; for example, elderly people, children, and mentally ill, as well as physically disabled persons, may need extra care to spring back from their medical conditions (Brown, Kitson and McKnight, 2013). As a result, it can be inferred from this section’s discussion that a patient is perceived to be the most important stakeholder in any healthcare organisation. For example, even though a patient is suffering miserably and going to die soon yet it is the responsibility of the selected nursing-home-members to care for him or her. Similarly, it does not matter whether a patient is straight or from the LGBT community, the staff members should be treated equally (Runciman, Merry, and Walton,2017). Hence, in these types of scenarios, an equal treatment policy must be rolled out by the concerned nursing home. It is more important to decipher the nursing home’s ethics and integrity. One cannot neglect the privacy of a patient, at any cost. For example, the gay man’s gender orientation was supposed to remain private. Contradictorily, it came out in the open, which restricted the staff members from working in his ward. As a result, the ethics committee should take up the responsibility to resolve all the ethical dilemmas faced by the clients. Most importantly, the service quality improvement is definitely a big issue, which has been avoided by the hospital, to a large extent (Hiroseand Bognar, 2014). Hence, the head office’s executive largely complained regarding the untidiness of the nursing staff members. Thus, the staffs should be concerned about both the patient as well as their own cleanliness.
The first scenario is of a gay man. He has been refused to get the equal treatment, as a patient, in the nursing home. There are several rules and regulations in the countries to safeguard the rights and freedom of the LGBT patients. For example, they have the right to undergo treatments without becoming victim of the discrimination and prejudices. Moreover, it is crucial to decoding how the staff’s thought processes and belief systems are regulated by his religious viewpoints. It is observable that the “religious freedom divisions” aim to promote the freedom of expressing religious values, publicly, in both the professional and personal lives (Iacobucci, Daly, Lindell and Griffin, 2013). On the other hand, the individuals’ professional values are often set by the culture of an individual. For example, in Japan, the nursing professionals are taught to respect others and maintain politeness as much as possible (Denson, Winefieldand Beilby,2013). Alternatively, the American and British nursing professionals get training for being responsible, ambitious, and honest. Thus, one must understand how the two nations’ religious values and cultures may affect the approaches of the staffs towards their patients.
Culture is a critical measure of the understanding of both the patients and health care staffs. For instance, the time orientation determines an individual’s view of the future, present, or past. Thus, it can be understood in the second scenario that the client who has more exposure to the discriminating environment will ultimately, behave in a similar fashion with others, as well. For example, the patient witnessed various black and minor group activists and movements, in the 1980s and 1950s, during his work-life. Thus, it is possible that the sample to extreme hatred because of the violent acts between the white natives and minor communities, in different nations. It is one of the reasons for being so hateful towards the ethically-minor groups and abuse them (Pols, 2013). On the contrary, the nursing staffs are provided adequate lessons on the understanding of cross-cultural contexts, in the real-life situations. As a result, it is high time for them to decipher both the tolerance and cultural quotient. Last but not the least, the patient is not to the best of his health to perform the appropriate acts (Oosterveld-Vlug et al., 2013). Hence, the staffs have to take charge in their hands, in these scenarios. Furthermore, the continuous communication or interaction must be focused upon, each and every time, by the staffs (Alfred et al., 2013). It will ultimately, eradicate the barriers to understanding between the two involved parties.
Health care is already quite complex in nature. Additionally, the language barriers and cultures further complicate the issues. The cross-cultural situations often vividly, magnify the discrepancy that exist between the health care providers and the patients. Building the patients’ trust is extremely substantial. It can be done by regular communication. For example, the people from rural and small groups may not be accustomed with several high-end policies. Therefore, they should be provided an environment, where kinship and family networks are available. On the contrary, if the problems are more inclined towards the staffs of a health care centre, it is important to train them from time-to-time. For example, they should be made aware of the legislation passed on various subjects such as equal treatment laws for the LGBT and others (Preshaw, Brazil, McLaughlin and Frolic, 2016). The three ‘As’ relevant to the treatment of culturally different patients are the acceptance, awareness, and asking. For instance, the caregivers are supposed to be aware of the personal biases that they have. After all, there is a vivid chance that the therapeutic relationship may be interfered because of the staff members’ personal biased opinions.Self-awareness includes both the client and individual’s cultural assumptions and perceptions. On the other hand,acceptance is a significant tool that can enhance the patient and caregiver’s relationship. However, these should be made part of the initial training process, of the nursing home. Delving deeper into the subject, it can be understood that the simple acceptance can help the nurses to become the healing agents (Lillemoen and Pedersen, 2013). In the health care industry, a new trend has emerged where the patients’ involvement and choices are given adequate liberty. Alternatively, the regular health care practices can hardly be negated, at any cost.
Conclusion
It is possible to infer from the above-discussion that both the patients and nursing staffs have to be culturally empathetic and sensitive. On the other hand, it is more important for the ethics committee to handle these issues more stringently. A conscientious nurse can largely, nurture, respect, and affirm all the patients via deliberate acceptance, awareness, and inquiry. Individual cultural, as well as religious values and professional codes of ethics, can be in conflict with one another. As a result, the nurses and other health care employees have to be accepting and remain respectful towards different practices and cultural beliefs, irrespective of the ones, possessed by them.
References
Alfred, D., Yarbrough, S., Martin, P., Mink, J., Lin, Y.H. and Wang, L.S., 2013. Comparison of professional values of Taiwanese and United States nursing students. Nursing Ethics, 20(8), pp.917-926.
Brown, J.M., Kitson, A.L. and McKnight, T.J., 2013. Challenges in caring: Explorations in nursing and ethics. NY: Springer.
Denson, L.A., Winefield, H.R. and Beilby, J.J., 2013. Discharge?planning for long?term care needs: the values and priorities of older people, their younger relatives and health professionals. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 27(1), pp.3-12.
Hirose, I. and Bognar, G., 2014. The ethics of health care rationing: an introduction. London: Routledge.
Holloway, I. and Galvin, K., 2016. Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Iacobucci, T.A., Daly, B.J., Lindell, D. and Griffin, M.Q., 2013. Professional values, self-esteem, and ethical confidence of baccalaureate nursing students. Nursing Ethics, 20(4), pp.479-490.
Lillemoen, L. and Pedersen, R., 2013. Ethical challenges and how to develop ethics support in primary health care. Nursing Ethics, 20(1), pp.96-108.
Marsh, K., Lanitis, T., Neasham, D., Orfanos, P. and Caro, J., 2014. Assessing the value of healthcare interventions using multi-criteria decision analysis: a review of the literature. Pharmacoeconomics, 32(4), pp.345-365.
Oosterveld-Vlug, M.G., Pasman, H.R.W., van Gennip, I.E., Willems, D.L. and Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B.D., 2013. Nursing home staff’s views on residents’ dignity: a qualitative interview study. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), p.353.
Pols, J., 2013. Washing the patient: dignity and aesthetic values in nursing care. Nursing Philosophy, 14(3), pp.186-200.
Preshaw, D.H., Brazil, K., McLaughlin, D. and Frolic, A., 2016. Ethical issues experienced by healthcare workers in nursing homes: Literature review. Nursing Ethics, 23(5), pp.490-506.
Runciman, B., Merry, A. and Walton, M., 2017. Safety and ethics in healthcare: a guide to getting it right. NY: CRC Press.
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