Nephrology nurse as a receiver of multicultural influences

Α multicultural approach to health problems seems to be a necessity in our country, too, due to mass inflow of large numbers of immigrants with a different way of life, manners and customs. The responsibility of delivering care is, even more, complicated when patients come from different countries or cultures, and are placed in a country’s care system with different culture and ethics, such as Greece. Whenever a nurse is in touch with a patient within the therapeutic environment, he/she is in touch with various factors, such as cultural identity, national history, cultural values, family, religion, spiritual, philosophical, ethical and moral beliefs. In today’s multicultural society specially formed education programs (basic, post basic, continuous) will give nurses the necessary means to communicate with other cultures and social groups and ways of thinking. This would help in molding a multicultural conscience, that accepts and respects the different, the opposite, the distant and leads to social stability and ensures of a persons’ identity. With the above changes, education can be the basis of a new culture of all people.