| Course | NR 394 Transcultural Nursing |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Culture care plan |
| Length | About 1,090 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | RN-to-BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 394 Week 5
Doing the Month on a Postpartum Unit: A Culture Care Plan for a First-Time Mother From Guangdong
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 394: Transcultural Nursing
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Doing the Month on a Postpartum Unit: A Culture Care Plan for a First-Time Mother From Guangdong
The Person and the Assessment
Mrs. L. is a 31-year-old first-time mother who moved to the United States from Guangdong province in China six years ago for graduate study and now works as an engineer. She gave birth by uncomplicated vaginal delivery on a composite 24-bed postpartum unit and is expected to stay two days. Her mother arrived from China last month to help her through the postpartum period. During the admission assessment, done in English with her mother's comments translated by Mrs. L., she described the practices she intends to follow for the next month, known as zuo yue zi or doing the month. Research with Chinese women has described these practices, which vary by region and family, as common and closely tied to beliefs about restoring balance and protecting future health after birth (Liu et al., 2014).
The plan is organized with Leininger's three modes of culturally congruent care: preservation or maintenance of practices that are helpful or harmless, accommodation or negotiation of practices that need adjustment to fit safe care, and repatterning or restructuring of practices that could cause harm (Leininger & McFarland, 2006). Each entry below starts with a finding in Mrs. L.'s own words or close to them.
Findings and Actions
Finding 1: I should not drink cold water or eat cold food; I need warm soups and hot water. Mode: Preservation. Action: Request hot water and warm drinks with every meal; ask dietary whether soups can replace cold items; allow her mother to bring home-cooked soups, checking only for any foods restricted for medical reasons. Rationale: The practice is harmless and supports adequate fluid intake, which matters for breastfeeding and recovery.
Finding 2: I should not shower or wash my hair for a month; my mother says water will let wind into my body. Mode: Accommodation. Action: Explain the purpose of perineal hygiene after birth and offer alternatives that respect the belief: warm sponge baths in a warm room, a warm perineal rinse bottle with each toilet visit, keeping her covered and out of drafts, and a warm hair wash with immediate drying if she chooses. Rationale: Perineal care reduces infection risk; the goal is hygiene, not a shower, and warmth addresses her concern.
Finding 3: I should stay in bed and rest; I should not walk around. Mode: Accommodation. Action: Explain that short walks in the room and hallway lower the risk of blood clots after birth, and agree on brief walks with warm socks and a robe, several times a day, with rest between. Rationale: Early mobilization reduces venous thromboembolism risk postpartum; resting most of the day is compatible with brief walking.
Finding 4: My mother wants me to avoid air conditioning and keep the room warm. Mode: Preservation. Action: Adjust the room thermostat within the safe range for the newborn and provide extra blankets for Mrs. L. Rationale: Harmless, and easily honored.
Finding 5: My mother says the baby should not be taken outside the room and visitors should be limited. Mode: Preservation. Action: Keep care in the room, cluster newborn assessments, and support her wish to limit visitors. Rationale: Consistent with rooming-in and infection prevention.
The One Practice That Needs Repatterning
One finding required more than accommodation. Mrs. L. said that her mother believes she should not drink much water and should eat mainly rice wine chicken soup to rebuild her strength, and that her mother had brought a soup cooked with a large amount of rice wine. Alcohol passes into breast milk, and a soup cooked with a large quantity of wine may retain alcohol, depending on how long it is cooked. Here the plan uses the repatterning mode, gently: the nurse explained to Mrs. L. and her mother that the soup itself is welcome, and that cooking it longer, so that most of the alcohol evaporates, or waiting two to three hours after a serving before breastfeeding, would protect the baby while keeping the tradition. The nurse also explained that drinking enough water supports milk supply, and suggested warm water or tea throughout the day, which fits the warmth principle both women value. Mrs. L. agreed, and her mother, after discussion, said she would cook the next batch longer.
Teaching and Discharge
Discharge teaching will be given to Mrs. L. with her mother present, since her mother will be the main caregiver at home for the next month. The written materials will be in English for Mrs. L. and in simplified Chinese for her mother, and the nurse will use teach-back with both. The warning signs of postpartum complications, heavy bleeding, fever, severe headache, leg swelling and signs of depression, will be taught with emphasis, because the practice of staying home for a month can delay seeking care. The nurse will explain that calling the clinic or coming in for these signs is consistent with protecting her health, which is the purpose of doing the month itself. Research on the practice has found links between adherence and physical and psychological outcomes, some favorable and some not, which supports discussing mood specifically rather than assuming that rest guarantees well-being (Liu et al., 2014).
The nurse will also give the pediatric clinic's number to her mother directly, since she will be the person at home during the day, and confirm that the newborn's first clinic visit is scheduled within the first week, which the family agreed is an exception to staying home.
Evaluation
The plan will be evaluated before discharge by three observations: whether Mrs. L. walked at least three times in the last 24 hours, whether she used the warm perineal rinse with each toilet visit, and whether both she and her mother can state the warning signs that require a call to the clinic. A follow-up call from the clinic nurse at one week, already routine, will ask about bleeding, fever, mood and feeding, and will note whether the rice wine soup plan was followed. Giger and Haddad (2021) emphasize that cultural care plans should be evaluated with the patient's own goals in mind; for Mrs. L., those goals include recovering in the way her family believes will protect her future health, and the plan succeeds only if it helped her do that safely.
References
Giger, J. N., & Haddad, L. (2021). Transcultural nursing: Assessment and intervention (8th ed.). Elsevier.
Leininger, M. M., & McFarland, M. R. (2006). Culture care diversity and universality: A worldwide nursing theory (2nd ed.). Jones and Bartlett.
Liu, Y. Q., Maloni, J. A., & Petrini, M. A. (2014). Effect of postpartum practices of doing the month on Chinese women's physical and psychological health. Biological Research for Nursing, 16(1), 55-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1099800412465107
The Chamberlain NR 394 Week 5 instructions
For Week 5 you write a culturally congruent plan of care for one patient. You will likely need an assessment of the patient's cultural beliefs and practices, a framework for care decisions, nursing actions with rationales, teaching, evaluation and APA. Reduce the assessment to what the patient said, in her words. Name your framework before listing actions. For each finding, choose preservation, accommodation or repatterning, and give a reason that cites both her value and the clinical purpose. Use repatterning only where a practice could cause harm, and change its form while keeping its meaning. Include the family member who will be caring for her at home, and evaluate with observable behaviors.
How this NR 394 Week 5 example is built
The assessment introduces Mrs. L., her birth and her mother's presence, and names Leininger's three modes. Five findings follow. Warm food and drink are preserved with hot water and soups from dietary. Not showering is accommodated with a warm perineal rinse and explanations of hygiene. Bed rest is accommodated with short walks to lower clot risk. A warm room and limited visitors are preserved within safe limits. The repatterning section addresses the rice wine soup: the soup stays welcome, but longer cooking or waiting two to three hours before breastfeeding protects the baby, and warm water or tea supports milk supply. Teaching includes her mother. Evaluation counts walks, rinse use and her own goals.
Where the points sit in the NR 394 Week 5 rubric
Culture care plan rubrics in NR 394 usually score the cultural assessment, use of a framework, appropriateness of each decision, rationale, teaching and family involvement, evaluation and APA. Appropriateness of decisions matters most, and the plan earns it by preserving or accommodating most practices and repatterning only the one that could harm the baby. The framework row is credited because every action names its mode. Rationales score when they cite her value and the clinical reason together. Teaching earns points for including her mother, who will be the main caregiver. Evaluation is credited for observable measures linked to her goals. Leininger and McFarland, Giger and Haddad, and Liu and colleagues on doing the month support the plan.
NR 394 Week 5 help from the desk
The heaviest deduction lands on a plan that restructures everything, treating the patient's practices as problems and the nurse as the correction. Another loss is choosing a mode without saying why, which hides whether any thought went into the choice. Students also describe the practices as group traits rather than what this patient said, leave the family out of teaching or evaluate only the nurse's goals. A table can work if each row carries a finding, a mode, an action and a reason. Not every finding needs an action; preserving a harmless practice is a decision too. If your patient has different practices, send the assessment and an NR 394 culture care plan can be built mode by mode.
Get a NR 394 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the plan template your section uses, the rubric, and whatever findings you already have. A custom NR 394 Week 5 example is built to that template and returned inside 24-48h, free on a first request, so the traceability this assignment tests is visible to you before you fill in your own document.
More NR 394 papers and RN-to-BSN samples
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- NR 394 Week 7: Health Promotion Plan
- NR 394 Week 8: Reflection
- NR 395 Week 5: Ethical Framework Analysis
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- NR 436 Week 5: Teaching Plan
- NR 361 Week 5: Pediatric Telephone Triage Analysis
NR 394 Week 5 questions, answered
Does every finding need an action?
No, and pretending otherwise weakens the document. Some findings are context and some are practices you are choosing to leave exactly as they stand. List them regardless with the decision recorded, because a grader reading a plan wants the reasoning applied to everything found, not a shortened list where the inconvenient items disappeared somewhere between assessment and plan.
How do I tell which decision an action belongs to?
Ask what happens to the person's practice. If it continues untouched, that is preservation. If it continues in a modified form the unit has agreed to work around, that is accommodation. If it stops or is replaced, that is restructuring, and the label commits you to showing harm and to describing how the person took part in the decision instead of being informed of it.
Can the plan be a table?
Often yes, and many sections prefer it, since columns force the traceability the assignment is testing. The risk is that a table invites four word entries, and a rationale of four words cites nothing at all. Where a template is supplied, its columns are part of the grade, so the effort goes into making each cell a complete thought rather than into redesigning the layout.
Where can I find a free NR 394 Week 5 sample paper?
The complete Week 5 culture care plan for Mrs. L., with five findings in her words, their modes and actions, the rice wine soup repatterning, teaching with her mother, evaluation and three references, is on this page.
Why is the rice wine soup repatterned in the NR 394 Week 5 plan?
Because alcohol passes into breast milk and a soup cooked with a lot of wine may keep some alcohol, so the plan keeps the soup but suggests longer cooking or waiting two to three hours before breastfeeding.