Forum.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are based on Level V evidence, as expected in a qualitative assessment.
Health professionals must:
- Have a strong sense of their own cultural identity, including the culture of their professional role and place of work.
- Be aware that there are many variations in attitudes to sedation at the end of life, which may differ significantly from those of the dominant culture. Cultural competence discourages ethnocentricity and encourages health professionals to see their patients within the patient’s own social context.
- Not assume that a person’s race, ethnicity or spiritual beliefs will necessarily define their attitudes towards death and the processes that surround dying.
- Encourage all staff to develop the skills to recognize potential variations, to elicit information, to understand and to accept the patient’s viewpoint, and to act creatively to meet the needs of the patient and their family. To do so is to develop a solid foundation of trust on which to build a therapeutic relationship.
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