1. STUDENT THERESIA How can community health nurses apply the strategies of cultural competence to their practice? According to Abualhaija, (2021), Cultural competence in nursing academia and practice is needed due to the increase of multiculturalism in the U.S.; hence, it was proposed as a strategy to reduce health disparities among ethnic minorities and vulnerable population. As a community nurse,  to be able to practice cultural competency, first you must be culturally competent about you own belief and be opened to accept other people’s belief within the community. Health professionals working in and within community groups and organizations will need to increase their skills by taking time to reflect on strategies for acculturation and barriers to fostering integration or assimilation while honoring diversity and respecting all peoples. Also, community health nurse must practice cultural competence, use communication and relational strategies that respect clients’ values, expectations, and goals without diminishing the nurses’ own values, expectations, and goals. For example, the nurse must use strategies that would allow her to effectively communicate with the client and modify nursing interventions that are based upon culturally informed nursing science, also understands that the client has the right to judge whether she has received the care she wanted and to follow up with appropriate action if she did not receive that care (Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.)                                            Cultural preservation /Barriers Example: Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice of inserting needles in specific points on the skin through which life energy flows, is used to relieve pain or cure diseases by restoring balance of yin and yang (Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.). The barrier to this strategy is that it leads to prejudice because in as much as acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice of pain management, not everyone in that community practice it.                                          Cultural accommodation/Barriers Example: In some cultures, they belief that if a baby is born with some ammonitic sac on their face, is a vision that something special was going to happen in the person’s life. The barrier to this strategy is stereotype.                                          Cultural re-patterning/ Barriers Example: A culturally competent school nurse who works with Mexican Americans knows of the high incidence of obesity among women 20 years and older. Using this information, she developed a health education program for Mexican teenagers in the local high school. While respecting their cultural traditions, the nurse discussed weight management strategies with the teenagers (Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.). The barrier to this strategy is racism.                                     Cultural brokering/ Barriers Example: A public health nurses also advocate for the rights of migrant workers to receive quality health care. The barrier ...

1. 1. STUDENT THERESIA
How can community health nurses apply the strategies of
cultural competence to their practice?
According to Abualhaija, (2021), Cultural competence in
nursing academia and practice is needed due to the increase of
multiculturalism in the U.S.; hence, it was proposed as a
strategy to reduce health disparities among ethnic minorities
and vulnerable population. As a community nurse, to be able to
practice cultural competency, first you must be culturally
competent about you own belief and be opened to accept other
people’s belief within the community. Health professionals
working in and within community groups and organizations will
need to increase their skills by taking time to reflect
on strategies for acculturation and barriers to fostering
integration or assimilation while honoring diversity and
respecting all peoples. Also, community health nurse must
practice cultural competence, use communication and relational
strategies that respect clients’ values, expectations, and goals
without diminishing the nurses’ own values, expectations, and
goals. For example, the nurse must use strategies that would
allow her to effectively communicate with the client and modify
nursing interventions that are based upon culturally informed
nursing science, also understands that the client has the right to
judge whether she has received the care she wanted and to
follow up with appropriate action if she did not receive that care
(Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.)
Cultural preservation /Barriers
Example: Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice of inserting
needles in specific points on the skin through which life energy
flows, is used to relieve pain or cure diseases by restoring
balance of yin and yang (Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.). The
barrier to this strategy is that it leads to prejudice because in as
much as acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice of pain
management, not everyone in that community practice it.

2. Cultural accommodation/Barriers
Example: In some cultures, they belief that if a baby is born
with some ammonitic sac on their face, is a vision that
something special was going to happen in the person’s life. The
barrier to this strategy is stereotype.
Cultural re-patterning/ Barriers
Example: A culturally competent school nurse who works with
Mexican Americans knows of the high incidence of obesity
among women 20 years and older. Using this information, she
developed a health education program for Mexican teenagers in
the local high school. While respecting their cultural traditions,
the nurse discussed weight management strategies with the
teenagers (Stanhope & Lancaster, n.d.). The barrier to this
strategy is racism.
Cultural brokering/ Barriers
Example: A public health nurses also advocate for the rights of
migrant workers to receive quality health care. The barrier to
this strategy is stereotyping
Reference
Abualhaija, Nashat. 2021. “Clarifying Cultural Competence in
Nursing: A Concept Analysis Approach.” Journal of Cultural
Diversity 28 (1): 3–14.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (n.d.). Public Health Nursing.
Retrieved from
https://platform.virdocs.com/r/s/0/doc/1490634/sp/157145252/m
i/510158349
2. STUDENT CLAUDINE
Dimensions of Cultural Competence
Nursing professionals cannot underestimate the importance of
cultural competence during the provision of nursing care. The
critical outcome of cultural competence is to help in effective
communication and interaction with the patients, which is vital
in creating therapeutic relationships. Cultural competence is not

3. relegated to tolerating the culture and practices but rather
celebrating them through care personalization. The components
of cultural competence are varied; however, they are based on
five core building blocks: cultural awareness, knowledge, skills,
and encounter (Pedrero et al., 2020). A nurse can become
culturally aware after dropping some individual prejudices
formed against other cultures. The cultural knowledge
underscores the need for searching for information about the
beliefs of different cultures. Cultural skills entail the ability of
the nurse to collect relevant data while processing it to facilitate
cross-cultural interactions. A cultural encounter requires nurses
to work with new cultures other than those they are conversant
with. Finally, nurses should possess the desire and strong
motivation to learn about different cultures.
There are strategies employed by culturally competent nurses
and include cultural preservation, accommodation, repatterning,
and brokering. Nurses using cultural preservation employ key
approaches that would aid the client to maintai n some critical
aspects of culture, which would promote healthy behaviors
(Pedrero et al., 2020). For example, nurses may encounter a
patient who practices meditation as a cultural practice that
enhances spiritual elevation. Cultural accommodation entails
using critical aspects of culture critical in satisfying care. For
example, a nurse may encounter a patient who uses alternative
therapies to manage pain. The nurse should support some
approaches while encouraging medical adherence to pain
management.
Cultural repatterning strategies entail working with the clients
when developing health-promoting behaviors. For example, a
patient’s culture may bar someone from participating in playful
outdoor activities since they may equate them to being childish.
Repatterning would entail educating the patient on physical
activity while reducing a sedentary lifestyle. Finally, cultural
brokering would involve advocating, mediating, negotiating,
and intervening between the patient's health care practices and
cultural practices (Sharifi et al., 2019). A good example

4. includes working with a chronically ill diabetic patient who
believes certain traditional practices would help lower blood
sugar levels. The cultural brokerage would involve mediation of
this conventional belief while acknowledging the role of
medical adherence to diabetic medication to control blood
sugar.
Some barriers may make cultural competence attainment
difficult. One of the critical barriers to cultural preservation and
accommodation comes in the context of cultural conflict. A
misunderstanding between the clients and nurses perceived
through a denial of cultural differences may create hindrances
to the best practices (Sharifi et al., 2019). On the other hand,
barriers to repatterning and brokerage may involve
disorientation when trying to understand and effectively adapt
to cultural values and beliefs mentioned by the patient.
Avoiding these barriers would involve an appreciation of
uniqueness in patient characteristics and critical cultural
practices.