Cultural Self-Assessment

Cultural Self-Assessment

Culture remains an important aspect of human living. Kaihlanen et al. (2019) note that culture has a summative effect on individuals’ intrinsic values as it gives them a sense of belonging, captures elements of their living, and provides them with shared beliefs, values, and life transitions that contribute to their wellness. In the contemporary U.S. society, where diversity is apparent, culture helps Americans perceive how their fellows think, behave, and make decisions. The conservative and liberal elements embedded in the American culture, along with its political structure and religious and scientific competitiveness, are all reflected in the country’s position in the globe and continuously define its take on emerging issues across the globe. The cultural self-examination tool provides a roadmap for cultural awareness and humility and helps individuals equate individual beliefs with their cultural identity and awareness.

Background Information

My childhood was fairly good and structured. I grew up in a reconstituted family. My mother was divorced and later remarried when I was 13. My twin sister and I lived comfortably as we had access to the basics of childhood living. This included schooling, respect, love, and compassion. Our grandparents were also involved in our lives as they schooled us during our early childhood education. This elaborate support system ensured that we had a satisfying, supportive, and enlightening childhood experience. My religious identity as a Baptist also imparted to me the Christian values of love, honesty, and compassion.

The transition into adulthood was, however, not smooth. As an adult, I made several mistakes and endured several challenges. More importantly, the experiences I had as an adult continued to broaden my perspectives about life and shaped me to be a better human. The loss of close family members made me realize the importance of family bonding and how significant the family is in enhancing the social wellness of individuals. Looking back, I have learned to appreciate the good moments in life and the essentiality of interpersonal skills in human interactions and personal development.

Personal Cultural Experiences

Discussions around ethnic profiling and racism that continue to litter American conversations highlight the diversity within the country. My family is an embodiment of the diversity within the country. My grandparents were from different nationalities and backgrounds. Their cultural differences made cultural discussions to be a non-issue in my childhood. As a young African-American growing up in a cross-cultural family, I never experienced racism or any form of ethnic profiling. It was until I transitioned to adulthood that I became educated on the histories of different races. Notwithstanding, I have learned to appreciate different cultures within the U.S. and beyond. Acknowledging differences in cultures among Americans has enabled me to better appreciate diversity and tailor my attitudes towards accepting people the way they are without profiling or judging because of the colour of their skin or culture.

Cultural/Diversity Experiences in My Nursing Career

Reflecting on my life journey, I see a path that defined my personality, widened my perspectives of life and living, and tailored my preferences towards a career that will enable me to demonstrate compassion, love, and caring to others. Nursing embodies human caring, compassion, altruism, social justice, and excellence (Poreddi et al., 2021). It draws individuals from different backgrounds and cultures with shared interests to conform to these values and produce a positive change in society. My experiences in nursing have continued to help me appreciate cultural diversity in society. These experiences have also enhanced my perspectives on human caring by imparting my knowledge on trans-cultural caring and how nurses can help create cultural awareness to lower the impact of racism and ethnic profiling.

A Self-Reflection on Personal Strengths and Weaknesses with Cultural Competence

The cultural self-reflection tool has given me insight into my areas of strength as far as cultural competency is concerned. My areas of strength are cultural self-awareness and knowledge of cultural worldview. My experiences in childhood, adulthood, and nursing have enhanced my understanding of different cultures and the common practices and beliefs of these cultures. This has helped me better appreciate individuals from these cultures and have a better insight into their worldview. My weakness area is in cross-cultural communication. While I recognize different cultures, communicating with individuals from different cultures sometimes poses a challenge to me. I am, however, committed to improving my communication skills to enable me to be a better cross-cultural communicator.

References

Kaihlanen, A.-M., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: Qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions about cultural competence training. BMC Nursing, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0363-x

Poreddi, V., Narayanan, A., Thankachan, A., Joy, B., Awungshi, C., & SaiNikhil Reddy, S. (2021a). Professional and ethical values in nursing practice: An Indian perspective. Investigación y Educación En Enfermería, 39(2). https://doi.org/10.17533/

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

Module 1 – Cultural Self-Assessment PLEASE DO NOT EXCEED 4 PAGES NOT INCLUDING COVER AND REFERENCE PAGE. *Turnitin is Required and the Percentage Match Must be 25% or less for acceptable submission.

This assignment (worth 125 points) will focus on the process of understanding your own values and beliefs and how they impact your worldview. For this assignment, you will need to consider some basic questions and write a cultural self-assessment reflection.

Reflection is crucial to learning and is, therefore, an important ‘act’ on the part of the learner. Much has been written about reflection but, simply put, it is thinking about and making sense of the experiences we have.

Below are several tools that you may want to use to help in this reflective process. These tools are intended to help you start thinking about diversity and your own worldview. Questions such as “What events do you think have shaped your worldview?”

Please don’t limit yourself to only answering the questions on the tool(s) you select, think about the questions and how your views/experiences/events shape where you are in your ability to embrace diversity.

Please make sure you address the following:

Brief personal background (childhood, schooling, family life, socio-economics, values, etc.)
Cultural experiences- personal
Cultural/diversity experiences- nursing career
Personal strengths and weaknesses with cultural competence-self reflection

Your paper should not exceed 4 pages in length (not including the cover page or the reference page- these pages never factor into the overall page count). Be sure to review the rubric for specific grading details.

*Turnitin is Required, and the Percentage Match Must be 25% or less for acceptable submission.