Introduction
Diversity in culture has both positive and negative impacts on an organization. With communities embracing people from different cultures along with their customs and traditions, society has become diverse with people holding on to some of their traditions while still embracing new customs through their associations with other people. Organizations that aim to help people must therefore find a way to work around the restrictions brought about by culture in order to ensure that their products and services are well received. In the case of health institutions, nurses and other medical professionals face a lot of challenges when treating patients especially because of their traditional beliefs. Although nurses have a responsibility to maintain the organizational culture, they should also strive to strike a balance between the hospital’s culture as well as the patient’s customs and traditions in order to offer the best quality of care.
Managing nurses and other medical practitioners have the responsibility to preserve life and offer the best quality of care to their patients. Often times, nurses follow a set of guidelines set in place to ensure that the organizational culture is maintained and that patients get the level of care and treatment approved by the organization in line with the code of conduct and regulations governing the organization’s operations. However, managing nurses are often tasked with the decision of determining when it is appropriate to factor in the needs of the patient especially when cultural restrictions may hinder the treatment methods to be used. A problem arises when the organizational culture that nurses are expected to follow goes against the traditions and customs held by the patient due to their cultural beliefs. In such a situation, doctors have to determine which is more important, the approved procedures to follow or the requirements that the patient may have due to their culture.
Problem statement
The main problem that nurses and other medical caregivers face when fulfilling their duties has to do with convincing patients to consider treatment methods that may go against their culture. Since culture has existed longer than most of the guidelines that govern hospitals today, customs and traditional practices have been part of the treatment procedures applied by doctors across the globe. Although people are more likely to follow the directives given by professionals rather than following ones culture, there are occurrences where people place more importance on their cultural beliefs than on the advice given by medical professionals. Doctors have however managed to find a way to help patients without interfering with their culture and this has greatly aided in the success of medicine in treating people regardless of any differences in culture that may exist.
Significance of the study
The main reason for the conflict between people’s culture and organizational cultures maintained by medical institutions has to do with the large knowledge gap between medical professionals and people not as well educated. Often times, people without adequate knowledge place culture over anything else in society including medical assistance from doctors. While nurses are educated and understand the importance of science, technology and medicine, some patients lack this knowledge and strongly believe in what their culture teaches them. Although it is a problem that could hinder the effectiveness of the medical assistance offered to the patient, it is a problem that can be resolved if only doctors find a way to factor in the patient’s cultural beliefs into their treatment. Doing so will ensure that the patients maintain their culture and still get the medical assistance needed without either party having to compromise. There is therefore need for research on how nurses and medical caregivers can go about understanding what culture means to patients as well as what they can do to ensure that culture does not prevent patients from getting the quality of medical care that they deserve.
