Nursing care should be sensitive to the cultural values of all groups. It should be sensitive to a person’s gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation as well as any disabilities the person may have (Daly S, Speedy S and Jackson D, 2004). The belief systems of clients should be respected at all times. Nurses encounter people from many cultural backgrounds and therefore they need to have the skills to professionally attend to clients from any culture (Andrews M and Boyle J, 2002). Nursing among people of Jewish and Korean heritage presents challenges in many areas like language, religious beliefs, cultural practices, and differences in perception of health care.
People of Asian heritage, including Koreans and Jews, are reserved and their social conduct is conservative. Due to this, they are known to engage in sexual intercourse late in life and have fewer partners throughout their life. They do not easily discuss issues to do with birth control or routine screening for women’s health. Nurses must therefore be sensitive to these issues when attending to clients of Korean heritage (Orshan S, 2008). Both Jews and Koreans practice the circumcision of boys. Every healthy Jewish male is circumcised on the eighth day after birth (Jacobs L, 1995). This practice is not done in a hospital. Nurses need to emphasize the need for such practices to be performed by trained personnel in a hospital setting.
Jewish culture has some dietary guidelines which may affect nursing practices where dietary counseling is necessary. Some foods are considered impure and are forbidden. These foods include pork, rabbit meat, shellfish, and combinations of meat and dairy products. Animals that do not chew the cud or do not have completely cloven hooves cannot be eaten. There are days on which Jews are not allowed to cook, like on the Sabbath. A person who plants a fruit tree cannot eat its fruit till after three years. These dietary laws may affect nursing practices among Jews. People of Korean heritage do not share in these dietary laws and hence will have fewer problems with dietary counseling (Roskies D, 1999).
In Korean culture, family units are very large and are considered to be of great importance. These families are dominated by men who are the heads of families. They should provide and make decisions for the family. This means that a woman does not make decisions without consulting their husbands. This affects nursing practices in that the man may not agree to interventions meant for the family or their wives. There is religious diversity among people of Korean heritage and this means that nurses should be aware of the belief systems of the people and respect them. The common religions include Christianity, Taoism, shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (Grayson J, 2002). This religious diversity is not a problem among Jews since Judaism is the religion of almost all Jews.
Both the Jewish and Korean cultures have practices that affect health care provision and nursing practices. Religious beliefs are at the forefront in both cultures and they affect the people’s perception towards health care, their response to nursing practices, their understanding of diseases and may even affect the development of diseases (Jacobs L and Giarelli E, 2001). It is therefore very important that all health caregivers understand the culture of each client to enhance good and sensitive care.
Reference List
Andrews M and Boyle J, July 2002, Journal of Transcultural Nursing, Vol. 13 No. 3, 178-18, Sage Publications.
Daly S, Speedy S and Jackson D, 2004, contexts of nursing.
Grayson J H, 2002, Korea: a religious history, Journal of Asian Studies, 62, part 4, 1252-1253.
Jacobs L A and Giarelli E, 2001, Jewish culture, health belief systems and genetic risk for cancer, Nursing forum, 36, 2, 5-12.
Jacobs L, 1995, Jewish religion: a companion, oxford university press.
Roskies D G, 1999, against the apocalypse: responses to catastrophe in modern Jewish culture.