Abstract

IBARRA MENDOZA, Teresa Ximena  and  NORENA PENA, Ana Lucía. Reflections on the nursing practice: A theoretical-experiential approach from the perspective of the intercultural interaction. Index Enferm [online]. 2009, vol.18, n.2, pp.116-120. ISSN 1699-5988.

This reflective exercise exposes how technical competition is historically predominant in Sanitary Attention whose evidence is explicit in nursing behavior through health speeches and cultural conducts. The cultural interaction concept is analyzed in two practical cases with infant population: In Colombia: Raizales Natives, and in Chile: the Indigenous population Aymara. A parallelism between both situations is built, which allows making a theoretical and experiential approach to analyze the implicit factors in the dialogic interaction established between nursing professional and patient. Deficiencies in the current professional performance are shown, specifically, the lack of acknowledgement and/or acceptation of cultural customs and values of human beings. A comprehensive approach to the cultural roots of human beings is needed. Going into the cultural-humanistic component in depth that considers the symbolic representations of the patient in the health-sickness process is also necessary.

Keywords : Intercultural communication; care; nursing.