CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN HEALTHCARE

Cultural Diversity in Healthcare



Cultural Diversity in Healthcare

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate the understanding of the terms Diversity Rights and Equality and how it can be applied to nursing care in British society. This article will outline why Nurses should have an awareness of patients right, how Nurses need to be aware of diversity to enhance patient care ,how equality is maintained in nursing care and how nurses can acknoledge rights and equality when meeting the needs of diverse groups.

Analysis

Diversity is each of us and all of us, individually and collectively. Diversity is everything that makes each of us different and those things about all of us that are similar. Diversity is what we can see and what we cannot see in each of us and all of us, at anytime, anywhere. The University of Kansas medical centre (2007). Equity in healthcare provision is far from being fulfilled. Over the past twenty years we have actually witnessed a step back in the achievement of this aim, which has been instigated by policies of rationalisation and privatisation. Cultural factors and wider social inequalities have served to aggravate these inequities. The reforms of the NHS since 1979 have been fuelled by political ideology, these decisions have not been independent decisions about organisational change and efficiency (Mohan, 1995). However, there is considerable evidence that it is inequalities income and not healthcare provision that accounts for the majority of inequality in health. Vision of an equitable healthcare service was to be realised, this would be far from sufficient to prevent ill health on the grounds of poverty. A mild redistribution of wealth, an increase to benefit payments and improved security for lower paid workers is just a few examples of the wider economic interventions that would be required to tackle the greater problem of inequality in health.

The Department of Health (2004) states valuing diversity within the NHS and determines the importance that health professionals recognize, respect and value difference for the benefit of the organization and its patients. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2002) incorporates the idea of non-judgmental care into its code of professional conduct by maintaining clause 7 of the UKCC Guidelines for Professional Practice (1996, pp25) who instructed “as a registered nurse, midwife or health visitor you are personally accountable for your practice. In the exercise of your professional accountability you must recognize and respect the uniqueness and dignity of each patient and respond to their need of care. Professionals are personally accountable for their actions and omissions, regardless of advice or directions from other professionals.

The only way to ensure that a nurse puts the patient first is by giving patients their rights. British medical association (2002) addresses that Minors have rights under the Human Rights Act just like everyone else but, as for everyone else, their rights will have to be interpreted in relation to the rights of other people. This is to say that young patients have often been given an opportunity ...