Cultural Self-assessment Assignment

Cultural Self-assessment Assignment
Cultural Self-assessment Assignment
Part 1: For this assignment, conduct a cultural self-assessment using the Staircase Self-Assessment Model and write a 1250–1500-word reflection essay.
To understand culture and cultural diversity, you must understand your own culture and beliefs. Utilizing the Staircase Self-Assessment Model as a means of determining your level of cultural competency, write a 1250 to 1500-word essay outlining the six stages: cultural destructiveness, cultural incapacity, cultural blindness, pre-competency, basic cultural competency, and advance cultural competency. Determine your level on the staircase by answering the following questions. Please be mindful that your responses will not be judged; only your knowledge of the Staircase Self-Assessment Model will be evaluated:
Step 1:
How much do I value becoming culturally competent?
What actions have I taken recently or in the past when caring for culturally diverse patients that demonstrate my motivation?
Step 2:
How much do I know about my cultural heritage or racial identity and its relationship to my own healthcare beliefs and practices?
Have I discussed these issues with my parents, grandparents, or other relatives?
Step 3:
How much do I know about cultural groups that differ from my own?
Step 4:
How culturally diverse is my social network?
How many encounters with cultural group members outside my social network do I have? Are these relationships superficial, or do I have social contact beyond the workplace?
Step 5:
Am I able to independently identify the potential or actual problems that originate from cultural conflicts, or am I surprised by them?
Do I serve as a culturally competent role model/mentor for others?
Step 6:
Have I developed problem-solving strategies to manage cultural conflicts?
Am I able to manage or resolve cultural problems or issues that arise, and what resources do I use?
Once you have completed the self-assessment, address the following questions:
Why are self-knowledge and understanding a critical step in achieving cultural competence?
How has the “cultural self-assessment” exercise influenced your awareness of personal and professional values, attitudes, and practices, including prejudices and biases?
How will your interactions with patients and families change as a result of this self-reflection?
Remember, you answer these questions from your perspective, so there is no right or wrong response. You must address each question. Although the information on your self-assessment paper is strictly confidential, if you do not wish to self-disclose a specific area from the Staircase, indicate that by explaining in detail why you do not want to disclose. Attention should be paid to grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Assignment Expectations
Length: 1250–1500 words; answers must thoroughly address the questions clearly and concisely.
Structure: Include a Title page in APA style. These do not count towards the minimum word count for this assignment.
References: n/a
Format: Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Culture is the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group (Virkus, 2009). In the field of nursing, we deal with various cultures regularly. We as health care professionals, need to be able to provide culturally competent care to the patients we care for. Self-assessment to acknowledge strengths and weaknesses within your cultural competency is key to discover and make changes to prevent cultural destructiveness.
In the cultural competency continuum, I believe that I function at a culturally competent level. In my practice, I make it my duty to research my patient’s culture before I have any type of interaction with the patient. Upon my first entry, I interview and learn more about the patient’s culture on their level. I have learned in my experience, that just because someone is of a certain race or background, does not mean they adhere to those cultural practices. For example, I have cared for patients from an Indian background that do not follow a vegetarian or lactovegetarian diet. I do not make assumptions about other cultures and their practices. Many people have migrated from one country to another, and overtime incorporate or even adopt other cultures. It is important to me to always make it my duty to learn more about a culture if I am not familiar with it. Thus being why I believe I function at a culturally competent level on the continuum.
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Assuming that everyone is the same cultural wise, would be a grave mistake. Not only is the assumption false, but it also contributes to cultural blindness. Subjectively, one of the elements of cultural diversity I possess is valuing diversity. I need to accept, acknowledge, and celebrate diversity. We all bring different elements to society. For everyone to be from the same culture wouldn’t be therapeutic. It promotes ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is seeing one’s own culture as the correct way of living (Tracy Evans, Santa Ana College, n.d.). Ethnocentrism is extremely toxic and can cause cultural incapacity. Another strength I feel I possess if the ability to adapt to diversity. It is important to be able to adapt to diversity so you don’t make others feel uncomfortable. Adapting to diversity means that you are inclusive towards others that are different from you. Valuing diversity and adapting to diversity are important strengths to have to continuously promote inclusion.
One of the weaknesses I possess is cultural knowledge. There is a vast amount of cultural knowledge that I do not possess. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds follow different customs making it hard to have complete knowledge of every culture there is. I also am not in control of institutionalized changes that occur. I always make sure to advocate for others of different cultures and backgrounds, however, I cannot make changes on an institutional level. Another weakness of mine would be culture assessment. There are a lot of cultures that I just don’t understand. Some cultures I don’t even understand their methods or concepts of communication. When dealing with issues of communication, I make sure to get an interpreter to help with the language barrier. Even though a person may have weaknesses within their cultural competency, doesn’t mean they don’t posses cultural competency. An individual with weaknesses makes it their duty to strengthen those said weaknesses. That is what I set out to do with each of my weaknesses in order to be a strong well rounded nurse.
Conclusively, it is always the health care professional’s job to person a self assessment to ensure they are not culturally blind. It is our job to ensure we are providing the best cultural competent care to make everyone in your care feel welcomed and accepted. We all have strengths and weaknesses within the cultural competency continuum. As professionals, it is important we self assess frequently to ensure we are not contributing to cultural destructiveness.