Inuit Culture and Multicultural Competency

When I think of multicultural competence I think of ice patterns on a window...multifaceted, layer upon layer and intricate.

We are called as nurses to consider three aspects in the quest for multicultural competency….

1.     Awareness of own assumptions, values, biases

2.     Knowledge about the culture.  Separation from the client’s community may be especially difficult in this client population.

3.     Skills.  It seems to me that with individuals from an Inuit cultural background that attention to non-verbal communication would be particularly important.  The 3 V’s and B

·      Visual: patterns of eye contact

·      Vocal Qualities:  tone and speech rate

·      Verbal Tracking: following the client

·      Body Language:  attentive authentic and mirroring would be important.  Caution with physical contact.

Other communication strategies??

·      Minimize direct questions.  I am cringing at my memories of past interactions with members of this culture when I think back to how many direct questions I asked.

·      Translation services

·      Be conscious of the power dynamic with the nurse-client relationship

·      Be aware of own expressions of emotions and sensitive with eliciting information about the patient’s emotions and feelings.

·      Be aware that the client may visually express an emotion but is actually feeling a very different emotion. i.e. incongruence between verbal and non-verbal is more of a possibility with this client population

·       The use of silence may be helpful in eliciting communication.

Please feel free to share any strategies you have found helpful in communicating to individuals from this cultural background.

Bibliography

Ivey, A. & Ivey, M.  (2010).  Intentional interviewing and counselling.  California; Brooks/Cole.