Question 1

“Variant characteristics of culture” include nationality, race, age, color, religious affiliation, educational status, socioeconomic status, occupation, military experience, political beliefs, urban versus rural residence, enclave identity, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, gender issues, physical characteristics, immigration status, and length of time away from the country of origin

The variant characteristics of culture is a concept used to refer to the wide range of attributes that mold an individual based on the context they exist in. The attributes do not only play a critical in shaping the individual but also the extent to which they identify with their original culture.  The cultural values that one is exposed to while growing up influence their way of life including their beliefs and behavior. Some attributes change while others remain constant throughout one’s life (Duan, 2016). For instance, immigration is likely to influence one’s behavior, therefore, shaping him to have traits different from those of his original culture. These attributes play a critical role in explaining the different sets of behaviors portrayed by different people across the world.

Question 2: How does cultural competency occur? What can one do to become culturally aware? Describe an effective approach to using The Purnell Model when working with subcultures (immigration status, gender, political beliefs, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, educational status, etc.).

Cultural competency refers to the ability of an individual to effectively interact and create meaningful relationships with individuals from different cultural backgrounds even when his cultural beliefs and ideas differ from theirs. A culturally competent person understands that people have been raised in different cultural backgrounds and therefore their behaviors and views of life may differ.  The ongoing learning process entails being aware of others; values and beliefs which improves one’s ability to work with people from other cultures (Larry, 2018). The theory of the Purnell Model incorporates different ideas about cultures and beliefs integrating them with the healthcare and nursing professions to establish cultural competence within the profession. Healthcare professionals are expected to deal with a wide range of different patients who have different cultural backgrounds.  The model aims to accomplish cultural competence guiding healthcare professionals to help take care of the patients who come from different cultures and have different values and views.

References

Duan, C. (2016). A concept analysis of cultural competence. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 3(3), 216-278.

Larry, P. (2018). Update: The Purnell Theory and Model for Culturally Competent Health Care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 30(2).