Advice for nurses - The Anglo Americans

The following are some observations about the family aspect that a US nurse should know:

1. Family size

By Asian standards the family is usually quite small (2) and increasingly some couples are choosing not to have families

2. Health Consultations

Oftentime a patient will make a decision about his/her own health without consulting other members of their family. Note that either parent can make a decision about their child.

3. Many Mothers and Fathers !

The incidence of divorce and remarriage is very high in the USA. Inevitably there will be pockets of society where this is very prevalent. As such a US nurse in the ER for example should not be too surprised when she encounters several ‘mothers and fathers’ for a child.

4. Geographic Spread

A family may be spread across the country and also the working culture in the USA can make it difficult to take time off to travel some hours to see a close relative in hospital. Again this is one of the reasons why the US nurse must ‘step in’ to a degree and provide the psychological support during the stressful time in hospital.

Given that a family may be thinly spread across the continent this does not stop it surrounding itself with very close friends for many years. These friends or ‘fictive’ families are often closer to the family than blood relatives.

Similarly a US nurse should be prepared for gay and lesbian relationships. The emotional bonds within these relationships are usually stronger than those with blood relatives.

Clearly, as befits a dynamic and changing society there are sometimes few similarities between the USA and more traditional countries. Naturally in all of the above the US nurse must be absolutely non judgemental when dealing with these individuals

5. Less noise = faster recovery

A belief in the USA is that the patient recovers better when they can rest quietly. Accordingly, a US nurse can expect some irritability if there are constant interruptions and the noise level is high.

6. The labor coach

Normally the labor coach is the husband, single mothers normally bring a friend or hire a labor coach to be with them. In lesbian relationships it is usually her partner.

7. It’s about the individual

In the USA it is the individual and not the family that is the primary unit. The US nurse must be prepared to not give information to family members without the patients’ explicit consent.