Clinical Reflection

Within the two weeks I have been in the nursing program, I believe all of the professors

have touched on the importance of being knowledgeable and aware of our patients culture. At

first, I thought this was to avoid being disrespectful, which is a huge part of it, but clinical on

Monday taught me that it is more than that. While the CNA was dressing our patient, she let the

patient know that she was about to put on the patients britches. This term took me aback for a

second since this word has been commonly replaced with pants. While the CNA is young and

probably does not use britches on a normal basis, she adjusted her word usage to fit the culture

and age of her patient. Although it would not have been disrespectful for the CNA to have said

pants, choosing britches helped create rapport between the CNA and the patient while

allowing space for the patient to feel comfortable in her own language and culture.

Not only did the word britches show me the significance of being aware of my

patients culture, but it also showed me that culture does not just have to do with race and

ethnicity. Working at the rehabilitation facility at Bridgewater Retirement Center, it is apparent

that most, if not all, of the patients are Caucasian. Coming into clinical, I thought that culture

would not be something I needed to acknowledge until after the nursing program. However,

attending clinical on Monday and seeing how the CNAs talked to the patients taught me that

culture can refer to the time when and where a person was raised. Professor Ward supported this

idea of cultural sensitivity when going through the pre-planning sheet and talking about the

Psychosocial and Culture section of the sheet. She gave examples of questions to ask our patients

like, Did you go to high school? because while it is required by the state to go to high school

now, it is not assumed to be the same for people of an older generation. Through Professor Ward

and the CNAs, I learned the depth and width of the term culture and just how significant that
term is. Being aware of culture is not just important in big cities where it is more diverse than

rural Virginia, but different cultures are everywhere we go and it is our job as nurses to be

sensitive and help build that rapport amidst cultural diversity.