Kontakt 2009, 11(2):282-291 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2009.047

Problems of providing culturally differentiated nursing care in selected minorities in the Czech RepublicNursing

Valérie Tóthová^*, Lucie Rolantová, Helena Michálková, Dita Nováková

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra ošetřovatelství

In the 1990's, in addition to wide social and political transformations, changes in natural, cultural and ethnic structure of the Czech Republic population were initiated. These changes also present certain requirements for healthcare professionals, since when giving the health care, the procedure should provide patients/clients with effective and comprehensible care from all members of the healthcare team, which is granted with respect to and in a manner compatible with cultural - health convincing and practice of the patient/client.
The target of the contribution is to show a research project, which is being implemented based on financial support from the Internal Grant Agency of the Czech Ministry of Health entitled "Providing culturally differentiated nursing care in selected minorities in the Czech Republic" on the one hand, and to present certain results from the first stage of the research on the other.
Within the framework of a qualitative examination, a deep interview was implemented with representatives of particular minority groups. This examination mapped the topical situation of specific cultural needs in context of the nursing care provided. In the contribution presented here, we focused our interest on areas of nutrition and fast, on the area of the relationship to the health and also on the area of specific features in hospitalization in five religious minorities.
Islam: Some of most interesting and for us as also most important results of the research in our respondents - followers of Islam - were obtained in the field of specific features in hospitalization. In the interview, the respondents particularly mentioned frequent and useless uncovering, bad opinions of personnel about their religion and open expression of prejudices concerning their trust. Orthodox Church: The area, which was shown to be of a great interest in processing the results, was the field of food and specific features of fasting. The respondents refuse all the food, which is made of animal blood. An interesting result brought the statement of respondents that they are not allowed to consume food, which was sacrificed in favour of a different cult. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - Mormons: The respondents mentioned that if somebody gets ill, they have specific rituals performed by the priest. This specific ritual is named "blessing for healing". Buddhism of Diamond Route (lay Buddhism): As one of most interesting results, there is a finding that all the respondents would refuse the heart transplantation. As they mentioned, the condition of mind is most important for them and the mind is associated with the heart. Judaism: The respondents mentioned that in the course of the hospitalization, they would preferably want to adhere to their specific features in the field of food. If this is impossible, they would at least appreciate a possibility of obtaining kosher food from their families.

Conclusion: The results obviously indicate that in the field of food, all the religious minorities exert a number of specific features. No matter whether these are forbidden or recommended foods or specific features in their preparation, there is one shared characteristic. For each member of any minority, food plays an important role in his/her life.

Keywords: national minorities; religious minorities; culturally differentiated care; research project

Received: September 15, 2009; Accepted: November 18, 2009; Published: December 18, 2009  Show citation