Heritage Assessment In Nursing

Religion, culture, beliefs, and ethnic customs can influence how patients understand health concepts, how they take care of their health, and how they make decisions related to their health (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). As a nurse, it is important to understand that not every patient shares the same healthcare beliefs. A nurse must be able to perform his or her duties without judgement and care for each patient with respect for their own unique set of beliefs and morals. In this paper, the Puerto Rican culture will be discussed, from family units to religious and cultural beliefs, as well as how Western Medicine fits into their healthcare.

Cultural Competency in general is related to the ability to serve people in an appropriate way where they feel respected. In health care this refers to comfortable treatments that meet the standards of the patient from any backgrounds with all their different ways of living. Health care is a very important matter to every culture with different beliefs, traits, linguistics, etc. As Tamu Nolfo, the certified prevention specialist states in the short video “What is cultural competence and why is it important?”, there is still a problem with inequality in the United States. This makes it difficult to connect with such diverse cultures and backgrounds. It is; however, very important to have health care providers with cultural competent manners

As I listened to the Riverbend scenario I thought of my own cultural competence and how at one time I knew very little of the Hmong culture. Working in a city where Asians make up only 3% of the population, this is a population I knew little about. I have learned that most Hmong are from the mountainous region of Laos, and are granted preferred refugee status by the U.S. (Cobb, 2010). From 2000 to 2010 the number of Hmong grew 40%, there are currently 260,073 Hmong people living primarily in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Even though the Hmong people seem to be prospering after thirty years in the U.S., there are still challenges with communication, understanding of cultural beliefs, and use of traditional medical practices (United States Census Bureau, 2013)

The scope of practice of a family nurse practitioner enables them the ability to serve as a primary care provider for families. This includes providing care for each member of the family individually and for the entire family collectively as a whole. Family nurse practitioners typically work in either a family practice or community health setting, where they are often responsible for the care of the entire family. Within each setting, there are numerous cultural variations that a family nurse practitioner might encounter. It is important that the family nurse practitioner is able to meet the families’ and are culturally competent when doing so. There are different family cultural assessment tools that aid in properly assessing and providing

The medical field in relation to varied cultural beliefs and traditions is something that is important to many, yet rarely talked about by almost all individuals. In other words, the cultural clashes created in medicalization is under looked by a multitude individuals. This is because many do not experience the hardships first hand. For that reason, the thought of difficulties within treatments of health issues or illnesses does not cross some individual’s minds. Nonetheless, each group of people is unique, in addition to, how they perceive the medical world. With this uniqueness comes many groups of people who struggle to understand other culture’s beliefs and their knowledge on health and illness. The lack of knowledge an individual has pertaining

The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down” is an astonishing book that reveals the need for improvement of cultural competency in the American healthcare system. This book teaches me the importance of the role of healthcare administrator as a cultural advocate between the patients and the providers. This book also influences me in realizing the differences between patients’ culture and providers’ culture. Moreover, I can relate to Jeanine Hilt, a social worker who truly cares for the Hmong culture and the Lees Family.

Cultural competency can be described as the ability to interact with different cultures in a positive manner. Many cultural differences can become apparent in a number of situations. According to Fadiman, doctors have a moral duty to save lives even if they don’t agree with the values or beliefs of someone else’s culture (1997). This paper will address the topic of cultural competency, with a concentration on the importance of cultural competency in the medical field.

Through her extensive research, Fadiman is able to express cultural differences and the impact ignoring this crucial piece can have. Healthcare in the U.S. is described as the best in the world, but Fadiman is able to highlight the weaknesses this healthcare system has in regards to culturally

Read the entire article and answer the following questions. Sometimes it takes more than one read to deeply understand an article.

To prevent from any influenza outbreak, flu vaccination is the only prevention. Pediatric and geriatric population is more likely to be effect by it, so it is important to get them vaccine. Without influenza vaccination, serious illness may occur and can lead to death. However, even with the importance of vaccination not many people get vaccine, especially the older Hispanic population. Compared to other population, Hispanic older adult ages 65 and up has the lowest rate of vaccine with 50.6% where Non-Hispanic white is 68.6% (OMH, 2013). Also comparing to the overall population of their health, the older Hispanic adults face the highest levels economic insecurity causing them to suffer from lack of food, poor health and even inadequate or

comprehensive assessment has not been successfully carried out. ! Cultural awareness in the 3-D Puzzle Model described by Schim et al. (2007) highlights the

In the health career field, us as health care professionals will face a number of different cultural, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds/groups. There will be many opportunities where we will confront all these differences and we have to learn to accept these differences and work around it by respecting their beliefs and traditions but also getting the job done. The Native American culture is one of many cultures that is so complex and strict when it comes to their beliefs against health care, disease, and sickness.

Health care providers need to treat patients holistically with respect of their cultural values and traditions, which may interfere and sometimes complicate a recommended treatment, not to mention a significant disparities in oral and general health in these minorities of cultural population have been noticed.(2,3)

The way a person thinks about health, “whether that is our ‘philosophy’, our ‘worldview’, our ‘framework’ influences what we do as individuals in practice,” as well as how we deliver the health service. These elements allow us to think about healthcare in our own culturally acceptable way, this isn’t always an acceptable way of delivering the service to people with views different to our own. Cultural competence is an approach that aids in influencing the service and the education of healthcare professionals. (Taylor, K., & Guerin, P., 2010).

Culture competency is defined as one has the knowledge, the abilities and the skill to deliver care congruent with the patient’s cultural beliefs and practices (Purnell, 2013). As a nurse or a health care provider, increasing ones consciousness of culture diversity improves the possibilities for health care practitioners to provide competent care (Purnell, 2013). Nurses and all health care providers should be aware of other cultures to provide the best care that they can for that individual. Developing a relationship with diverse cultural groups involves good interpersonal skills and the application of knowledge and techniques learned from the physical, biological, and social sciences as well as the humanities (Purnell, 2013). I am choosing to select the Indian culture for my first assignment.