Cultural diversity is one of the riches that the contemporary society is endowed with. However, culture is also a major setback in most industries due to differences in perception and response. Cultural diversity is not only defined in aspects such as tribe, race or class but can also include age.
Looking at the case study, the cultures of the elderly man may have clashed with the nurse in a number of ways. The man being old might have felt embarrassed at the thought of disclosing some personal information to a young nurse. The man might have also held back due to the fact that the nurse was female and disclosing personal information would have been difficult. Aborigines are indigenous people and as such they have certain cultures and traditions that the nurse might have been unaware of, and that may have acted as a barrier towards meaningful communication. The elderly man only spoke English as his second language, implying that there was a language barrier.
The nurse might have not been able to understand effectively the old man’s explanations and proper diagnosis could have been difficult. The man might have also been unable to understand the nurse’s directives properly.
The health needs of the elderly man could be met, if the health service adopted strategies geared towards cultural security. Cultural security is especially mandatory in hospitals operating in remote areas, where majority of the patients are indigenous people. The hospital could have trained and recruited several indigenous nurses who are aware of the language and the culture of the indigenous people. The trained nurses could have therefore offered advisory services to the hospital, with regard to how people of different age groups, gender and social class if any should be handled. The trained nurses could have also bridged the gap placed by language differences, by acting as interpreters and attending to indigenous people.
The family constitutes a very important part of a patient’s life and it is imperative that they are included during the provision of health services. The elderly man had a daughter who had been totally ignored during the visits, but who could have offered valuable information. Furthermore the children were also left unattended to and were running around the accident and emergency area.
The health service could have taken note of the family members and in instances where the old man could not offer adequate information due to cultural issues, there could have been the possibility that the daughter could have helped. Suppose the disease was a communicable disease for instance TB, it could have been advisable for the health service, to direct the daughter on how to protect herself and the children, from contracting the disease.
Cultural security requires sensitivity towards a person’s culture and perhaps the elderly man could have been more comfortable speaking to a male doctor. The health service did not have proper record keeping methods. This is because the elderly man was required to repeat the same information over and over again during subsequent visits. Regardless of whether the attending nurse was different during each visit, the health service could have adopted an effective way of keeping records, and the information could have been made accessible to relevant parties.