Subject(s)
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate , Nursing Theory , Humans , Nursing Education Research , TeachingABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine nurse-midwives' general cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward Jewish couples of varying degrees of religious identification during the birth process and the relationship between background data, ethnic attitudes, and cultural competence. DESIGN: Descriptive, correlational study. SETTING: Academic tertiary care health facility. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty staff nurse-midwives employed at a university hospital in Israel. METHODS: Participants completed Campinha-Bacote's Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals-Revised, Ethnic Attitude Scale-Adapted, and a midwifery demographic survey. RESULTS: General cultural competence scores were consistent with previous studies of nurses who did not receive formal cultural education. Midwives' ethnic attitude differed significantly among Secular, Traditional, Religious, and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish patient scenarios. The most positive attitudes and lowest bias scores occurred for midwives when the patient scenarios were similar to or congruent with their religious identification. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate a need to establish educational and practice content with clinical experiences to improve midwives' cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward women and their families with dissimilar cultural backgrounds. These results have global implications for nursing/midwifery care considering patients' varying degrees of religious adherence.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel/ethnology , Cultural Competency/psychology , Jews/ethnology , Nurse Midwives/psychology , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Cultural Competency/education , Cultural Competency/organization & administration , Cultural Diversity , Education, Nursing, Continuing , Female , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Services Needs and Demand , Hospitals, University , Humans , Israel , Jews/education , Jews/statistics & numerical data , Male , Models, Nursing , Nurse Midwives/education , Nurse Midwives/organization & administration , Nursing Methodology Research , Parturition/ethnology , Residence Characteristics , Surveys and Questionnaires , Transcultural Nursing/education , Transcultural Nursing/organization & administrationABSTRACT
Many communities throughout the world, especially in the United States and Israel, contain large populations of religiously observant Jews. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive, descriptive guide to specific laws, customs, and practices of traditionally, religious observant Jews for the culturally sensitive management of labor, delivery, and postpartum. Discussion includes intimacy issues between husband and wife, dietary laws, Sabbath observance, as well as practices concerning prayer, communication trends, modesty issues, and labor and birth customs. Health care professionals can tailor their practice by integrating their knowledge of specific cultures into their management plan.
