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Clinical Cultural Awareness Reflection: Dignity

Daniel Pompa

St. Joseph’s College of Nursing

NSG-123: Health & Illness Across the Lifespan

Kerrigan Nyman

February 4th, 2024

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Description of Experience

A co-worker approached me, “Could you help me with my patient? He only wants

another male to clean him up.” I agreed, eager to perform any task on my second clinical day on

2-4. I searched for the blinking white light, took a deep breath, pushed the handle of the hand

sanitizer to perform proper hand hygiene, and walked into the room. I greeted the dark-skinned

man, and he smiled, looking at me with promise and confusion but not saying a word. “He

doesn’t speak English but doesn’t like women cleaning him up in the hospital. It is against his

religion.” said his daughter from the armchair adjacent to the radiators in the corner of the room.

His daughter also agreed to translate, and I asked her to let him know that I would be happy to

help him and would be back with some supplies.

I left the room, pushed the handle to eject hand sanitizer from its container, rubbed my

hands with vigor, and walked to the furthest linen cabinet on the unit. I returned to the room,

assisted him out of the chair to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and returned him to the chair. I

made his bed, asked them if they needed anything else, and left, letting my classmate know I

had helped and she could return to the room.

Significance of Experience

This experience made me feel good. As a male nursing student, I expected to encounter

a situation where I was prohibited from providing care due to a gender preference before I was

able to help someone because they were more comfortable with being a male. I just hadn’t

expected someone to have a male preference for caregivers because females are generally
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considered more nurturing. However, this experience was insightful and taught me never to

assume a patient's preference.

The individual and family differed because the father did not speak English and likely

did not grow up in this country. I did notice that the daughter was covered, only showing her

face, but I did not ask any questions because I was not the primary nurse, and I had no reason to

question their culture or religion. However, in hindsight, it would have been beneficial to ask

questions about their culture to learn more. At the time, I was new in the hospital. I was also

less comfortable asking patients questions and steering the conversation toward information I

wanted to learn about the patient. I also fear not asking questions in the future because I would

not want the patient to become offended. I can work on This aspect of therapeutic

communication in the future.

I was similar to the patient in that I was a male, and he was a male; this made him

comfortable asking me for help with perineal care and assisting him to the bathroom. I was very

different from the patient in that I did not speak the same language as him; I did not share his

culture. The similarities between the patient and me put me in a unique situation to preserve his

dignity. The differences between the patient and I created a barrier in communication, which

prevented me from asking him questions about his culture and learning more about him. The

differences between the patient and me also reduced my ability to make him more comfortable.

Strategies to Change Future Practice

I learned never to assume that a patient would prefer a female caregiver over me because

they are female. Although this may seem like common sense as I am typing it, it is an intrinsic

bias that I am recognizing and working on. I learned that patients may be comfortable with me
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even if they cannot speak the same language. I learned that patients of other cultures may not

allow female caregivers to care for them because it is against their religion. Due to the coverings

worn by the daughter, the patients may have been Muslim. I researched this and found that it is

mahram (prohibited) for men and women to have physical contact underneath clothing under

most conditions (Masumi).

In the future, and in a situation where we have unlimited staff, translators, and assistive

personnel, I would ask for a translator to help me communicate with the patient; I would ask for

another male staff member if the patient required more assistance or felt more comfortable with

it. In the future, I would also make more effort to ask the daughter about their culture. At the

time, I felt that speaking to the daughter in a language the father could not understand would be

rude and make him feel ignored. However, I could tell the daughter I wanted to learn more

about their culture, which could nullify this. In the future, I would also ask the primary nurse

about the patient before assisting them in care. I could have also asked my classmate, who may

have had more time to spend one on 1 with the patient than the primary nurse. I could also ask

my clinical instructor for general tips regarding therapeutic communication.

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References

Masumi, S. M. (2024, January 31). Rules Related to Socializing. AI-Islam.org.

https://www.al-islam.org/code-ethics-muslim-men-and-women/rules-related-socializing