Nurse’s Caregiving Behaviors in Multicultural Environments Author’s

The research conducted by Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas (2009) aims at analyzing the views of Saudi patients regarding what is perceived as essential caring behaviors in a hospital placed in a culturally diverse environment. The concept of caring is universal, and therefore patients and nurses who come from diverse cultural backgrounds have different perceptions about caregiving in hospitals. Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas(2009) identified the gap in Saudi Arabia; there is insufficient information about the opinions of patients about the concept of caring in hospitals. Most nurses in Saudi Arabia have different cultural backgrounds than that of patients which provides an excellent opportunity for health research in a multicultural environment.Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas (2009) did a great job in identifying the research gap about caregiving in Saudi Arabia; by analyzing the concept of caregiving in the Saudi’s hospitals they gave insight as to whether the different cultural backgrounds between the nurses and the patients affects the perceptions of caring behaviors.

Type of study and design

The study was designed in the form of a survey with the primary aim of understanding the patient’s perceptions of critical caring behaviors, especially where there are cultural differences between nurses and patients. A questionnaire was used in the study to differentiate between the patient’s perceptions of the importance of caring behaviors in hospitals and also the frequency to which the patients observed the caring behaviors in the nurses.

The use of questionnaires as a method of data collection allowed the researchers to involve a large number of participants which was advantageous as better results can be obtained from collecting information from a lot of participants. Questionnaires are practical to data collection in hospitals, considering the situation in hospitals with many patients and their health condition as well; another form of collecting information such as interviewing would be impractical (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, 2009).

The study used a sample of 393 participants who were patients in three different hospitals located various parts of Saudi Arabia. The participants were patients admitted for a minimum of two days in the medical and surgical wards. The three hospitals used in the study are located in the central, western, and eastern part of the country, and they are all operated by National Guard Health Affairs. It is the standard practice of the chosen hospitals to employ nurses from different geographical and cultural backgrounds such as nurses from Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and many more. The hospitals have a mandate that only the English language should be used; this is a way of balancing the cultural and language diversity in the hospitals. In the 396 patients that agreed to participate in the study, 132 patients were from each of the three regions, with half of them being patients in surgical words and the rest from medical wards (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, 2009). Only adult patients aged between 20-50 years old could participate in the study, and they also had to be fully conscious of participating in the study, the surgery patients could only participate in the study after two days post-surgery. Data were obtained from different health facilities from diverse parts of Saudi Arabia to eliminate prejudice and have data that is representative of the caregiving situation in the nation. The age limit set by the researchers was a great way of ensuring that only consenting adults participated in the study, patients below 20 years of age are too young while those over sixty are old and they could have impaired perceptions.

The data collection process was carried out by research assistants located in the central, eastern and western regions of Saudi Arabia. The research assistants were trained researchers especially in the methods of data collection. They handed out the questionnaires and writing materials to the patients. Most of the patients required assistance in filling out the questionnaire; the research assistants helped those patients especially the ones who couldn’t read and write. The research assistants did a great job in sticking around after giving the questionnaires. The presence of the research assistants acts as a motivating factor for the patients to fill out the questionnaire. In the case where a person gives you a survey to fill then disappears then a person is more likely to fill out the questionnaire randomly just to get through it as the researcher is nowhere to be seen. The presence of the study assistants combined with the fact that they helped most of the patients fill out the questionnaires encouraged the patients to participate in the study (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, 2009).

The Caring Behaviors Assessment (CBA) was used to analyze the nurse’s caring behaviors. Eight subscales of Caring Behaviors Assessment were used to examine the perceived caring actions of the nurses. The patients were supposed to use the Likert-type scale which ranges from 1 that stands for less important to the scale of 5 which stands for most important; to evaluate the importance of every survey item, a Likert type scale was applied. The choice of Likert-type scale in this study was a great one; this is because the method is easily understood as the patients only had to assign a degree of importance to the survey items. The Likert-type scale results are also easily quantifiable which makes it easy to analyze results. The Likert scale does not require yes or no answers; therefore it does not demand that the participants should take their stands on some issues, and this made it convenient for the study participants to participant in the study.

Quality of the study

Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas sought permission from the institutional al review board to conduct the study. The researchers informed the study participants that their involvement was voluntary and they were at liberty to withdraw from the study at any time they desired. The patients were also given a written consent form that they had to sign indicating that they had agreed to participate in the study out of their own free will. This study observed all research ethics, first of all, the researchers sought permission from the institutional review board, and the researchers also went ahead and obtained consent from the participants who were assured to the confidentially of their personal information (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, 2009).

Study results

The results of the study were that the overall caring behaviors of the nurses were rated as highly important while the frequently experienced caring behaviors got a lower rating. The study results indicated that the participants were aware of the need for caring behaviors. According to the study, the most important subscales that form caring behavior include supportive/protective/corrective environment, humanism/faith-hope/sensitivity, and human needs assistance. Further, the participants indicated that Jean Watson’s theory that supports caring behaviors in health facilities is of importance. The patients value the caregiving behaviors in the nurses despite having different cultural backgrounds with the caregivers. The values of frequency of caring behaviors in nurses especially in the subscales of teaching/learning and helping/trust behavior subcategories were low. The low ratings can be attributed to the fact that the cultural difference and the language differences created a barrier between the nurses and the patients in Saudi Arabia (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, 2009).

Reference

Suliman, W. A., Welmann, E., Omer, T., & Thomas, L. (2009). Applying Watson’s Nursing Theory to Assess Patient Perceptions of Being Cared for in a Multicultural Environment. Journal of Nursing Research, 17(4), 293-300.