Cultural Diversity: Heritage Assessment
Heritage is the customs, traditions, ethnicities, cultures, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are fragment and portion of the history of a community group or a nation (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). When talking about heritage, one is talking about who we are, what part of the world are we from and what is our history is all about. Everyone come from different culture and with traditions, customs and the heritage differs from cultures to culture, which is determined by religions, ethnics, and cultural background. As nurses, it is very essential and vital when collecting patient information along with theirs cultural background during nursing assessment.
Heritage assessment tool is an important tool for
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In this paper, three families were interviewed on several characteristics of their culture, customs and beliefs toward health which includes African, African American and Jamaican.
Yoruba Culture
The Akosiles family was interviewed, and they are natives of Ekiti State in Nigeria. The family just came to visit their family friend here in America. The Yoruba culture is one the strongest and toughest culture in Nigeria. Yorubas are family oriented, they cherished their family and respect every family’s opinions and have mutual relationship with each. This family believes in traditional religion, food and dance. It was learned that in Yoruba culture, traditional religion is very important, such as Ogun (God of Iron), and Sango, (God of Thunder). There is a specific time that is assigned to worship them and that is when people believes to ask for good health through the year and anyone that is sick will come to the shrine with some items to make sacrifice. The Akosiles family came from the family that worships God of iron, in Yoruba land in Nigeria. They believes in some herbs preparations for healing of different types of sickness, they believe in saying incantations to a leaves and placed it on any part of the body that needed restoration and healing and they also believes in using incantation to cast out demonic attack from a person. Pounded yam is their local and native food with
“Health is influenced by culture and beliefs” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). In order for the nurse to properly care for the patient, she must know and understand the patient’s culture. “Cultural care is a comprehensive model that includes the assessment of a client’s cultural needs, beliefs, and health care practices” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). It is not enough to just know where the patient lives or where he came from. The nurse must embrace the concept of cultural competence and cultural awareness. This requires not only the awareness of the cultural beliefs and values of their patients, but also
In evaluating the Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) two things became immediately obvious. First, the questions provided a fair outline and structure for identifying factors of culture, religion, tradition and environment and how they may influence the subject family’s approach to health maintenance and health restoration. And second, that the medical professional using the HAT must be aware of and sensitive to the scrutinizing nature of the questions and what defensive and evasive responses they may invoke. While conducting these family interviews, I noticed even when asking the questions of my own family that they were not immune to this scrutiny affect. As such, when interviewing the other two families, I was very attentive to them and
In order to provide culturally appropriate care, an examination of one's personal views, beliefs, and prejudices must be examined. The first portion of this paper will examine my personal values, beliefs, biases, and prejudices. The remaining paper will analyze the African American culture relating to the Ginger and Davidhizar's Transcultural Assessment Model cited in Hood (2010). This model uses six key cultural elements that include communication, space, social organization, time, environment, and biological variations. This model provides a systematic approach for assessing culturally diverse clients. I will also discuss an aspect of care that I would
The Heritage Assessment Tool can be adopted as a dependable tool to gauge, health maintenance, restoration and safeguard of personal, cultural beliefs. The adoption of health assessment tool helps meet the prerequisites of diverse patient populations to offer quality all-inclusive care. The following paper reviews the assessment of three culturally dissimilar families, and demonstrate how a nurse would continue with health promotion centred on the variances in health traditions between the three cultures. The three cultures include Hispanic culture, Native American Indian culture and White American culture. The objectives of this essay are
In America, the number of federally identified tribes is 562 with every tribe having its own culture, belief system and practices. That is why there seem diverse type of behaviors among this population related to healthcare seeking and healthcare attitudes. Amongst the most common components that lead to this diversity in healthcare seeking behaviors is the role of culture which affects healthcare intervention, prevention, and care. So, it is very important to understand the diversity of culture in particular
Culture is a very important aspect for health care professionals to examine when interacting with their clients. By having an understanding of different cultural practices, a clinician can more effectively treat a patient. Kagawa-Singer, M. & Kassim-Lakha, S. (2003) theorizes that patients resist lifestyle changes, and culture forms lifestyle. Therefore, if physicians attend to the influence of culture on health behavior, outcomes of medical care might well be improved.
Culture is a system of beliefs that are shared and communicated within a certain group of people, along with behavioral expectations and values that provide a framework to live by. No two people practice culture the exact same way. In the healthcare setting, especially in the United States, nurses and other healthcare workers are exposed to many different cultures. Being a culturally competent nurse ensures that individuals, families, and different groups of society get customized care that is well planned and implemented (Taylor, Lillis, & Lynn, 2015).
Today in society there are many diverse culture and ethnic backgrounds, each with their own habits, traditions, preferences, and of these includes health. Different needs of the whole person should be evaluated in detail. This paper will discuss results from three different cultures through the interviewing of them using the Heritage Assessment Tool. It will also review, compare, and address health traditions between the cultures as well as identify common health traditions based on cultural heritage. The purpose is to evaluate and discuss how families subscribe to these traditions/practices, address health
The findings of the interviews are identified in the table below (information including but not limited to what is listed). These families of different cultures ascribed their health traditions to different things. The African American family states that their health traditions are passed down by elders (grandparents), of both sexes. The Mexican American family ascribes their traditions to the women of the family, stating that it is a female responsibility to pass down traditions regarding heath. The Caucasian American family states that they received their knowledge of health from what is or has been proved by science, and usually each mother of the household is responsible for the health of the family.
Showing support and respect for cultural health beliefs creates a better interpersonal relationship between patient and physician. When implementing a wellness plan for the patient to follow the physician should take into consideration the beliefs of the patient. Health care providers should seek and obtain knowledge of their patient’s diverse cultures. Obtaining the knowledge of other cultures can be an valuable skill.
This nurse interviewed individuals with the following races according to Smith: African American-Kenyan, Asian-Filipino, and Hispanic-Mexican American. It was interesting to note that although the three cultures studied spoke different language and was from different parts of the world, religion and deep family ties were highly valued. All three families shared the same religion, bible reading, praying and celebrating religious holidays. The differences came from where the families were born. The Nurse was born in the United States and the African family was born in Kenya. The Filipino family was born in the Philippines. The African and the
We will consider three families of differing cultural heritage, and explore how each of these cultures influences perceptions of health care.
The Heritage Assessment Tool can be used as as a reliable tool to assess, health maintenance, protection and restoration of individual cultural beliefs. This evaluation helps meet the needs of different patient populations to provide quality holistic care. The purpose of this paper is to explore the Hispanic, Native American, Chinese, and the author’s own personal
According to the HAT, the author’s responses makes her close to her traditional practices and beliefs, she feels that even though they have been living in US for a long time, they are still connected to their traditional values and it affects them in making decisions about their every day living and also the health related decisions.
Today when people move across continents with the help of technology their culture and heritage moves along with them. Almost each and every continent is populated with people from different nations who have diverse traditions and cultures. Thus knowledge of health traditions and culture plays a vital role in nursing. People from different cultures have a unique view on health and illness. Culture-specific care is a vital skill to the modern nurse, as the United States continues to consist of many immigrants who have become assimilated into one culture. I interviewed three families of different cultures: - Indian (my culture), Hispanic and Chinese. Let us see the differences in health traditions between these cultures.