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American Indian Culture Case Study

Decent Essays

Family and Social Issues within the American Indian and Cherokee Tribe Culture

Introduction Culture Vision is an online resource that provides healthcare professionals with essential information about all ethnicities. As a healthcare professional, it is a priority for all patients to receive essential care no matter their ethnicity. Culture Vision can help drive that care that may be a different due to their culture and beliefs. In this paper, I am going to explore the family and social issues of American Indian’s that Culture Vision points out, as well as a peer-reviewed article that focuses on the family and social issues with infants.
Summary
According to Culture Vision (2016), American Indian’s social structure plays a huge role in …show more content…

The three main topics the article discusses is the extended family’s role, promoting learning during infancy, and the view of obedience. The American Indian tribes believe that if they care for the earth then in return, the earth will care for them (Nichols, 2004, p.227). Within the tribe, caring for the infant is the most important because they are the ones that will pass on the traditions and beliefs hopefully to their own children (Nichols, 2004, p.227). The mother and father of the infant are not the only ones who provide care for the infant. The infant’s extended family is also responsible for the care of the infant (Nichols, 2004, p.244). It is believe that “the stronger the family member’s identity with the tribe, the more likely the person will adhere to the values, beliefs, and parenting practices of the tribe (Nichols, 2004, p. 229). The Cherokee mothers allowing others to raise their children forms special relationships within the extended family, and allows the children to learn a variety of skills (Nichols, 2004, p.237). Also Cherokee mothers allow their infants to learn through exploring with minimal supervision (Nichols, 2004, p.240). The last main topic that was discussed was obedience of children …show more content…

The nurse is the patient’s advocate and needs to understand what their hopes and wishes are for their care to best guide the care that they or the healthcare provider may give. In regards to the American Indian, specifically Cherokee culture, it is important for the nurse to have an understanding of the family and social dynamics. Within the family and social dynamics, the nurse has the view of what arrangements may need to be made. For example, the American Indian’s are split into tribes and the tribe is seen as a large extended family. If a nurse is taking care of an American Indian, he or she will need to understand that there may be large masses of visitors. It is the right for the patient to have visitors, but the nurse may need to intervene to suggest a limit of visitors at a time in the room to prevent crowding. At a more sensitive topic, Cherokee women have different beliefs in caring for their infants. The nurse should not be judgmental, but rather accept their motherly ways. The nurse should not just completely ignore the mother and her infant’s well being, but she should observe and have a open conversation about how things are going that. Through conversation and observation, the nurse can determine if something is abnormal and is causing harm to the infant. At that time, it would be appropriate for the nurse to intervene in order to help promote

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