Cultural Diversity in the Medical World Essay

It is well known that the United States is made up of several different cultures and the health care system delivers care to a very diverse population. However, depending on ones culture-receiving care may be a challenge at times. In this paper we are going to take a closer look at the culture of Hispanic Americans. The Hispanic population has grown to over 55 million residents with in the United States in 2015, with an estimated growth rate of 2.1% per year (Krogstad & Lopez, 2015). Making this minority group on of the fastest growing populations within the United States (DeNisco & Barker, 2016).

Cultural diversity in the health care setting is increasing each year. Knowing how to care for patients of different religious and spiritual faiths is essential to providing high-quality, patient-centered care. The author of this paper will research three lesser-known religions; Taoism, Sikhism and Shamanism. Through this paper, she will provide a brief background on each of the three religions and present information regarding spiritual perspectives on healing, critical components of healing and health care considerations associated with each religion.

In 1988 Giger and Davidhizar created their Transcultural Assessment Model (TAM) to facilitate “…the discovery of culturally sensitive facts… (and) provide culturally appropriate and competent care.” (Giger & Davidhizar, 2002) The TAM was developed for an undergraduate nursing curriculum to train students to assess and provide care for patients that are culturally diverse. This paper will employ the six cultural phenomena defined by TAM to assist in identifying cultural attributes of Mexican Americans that should be considered by nurses in assessment and care.

The nursing profession has a long history of assessing and placing patient needs first when giving care. The tenets of nursing practice include meeting those needs using individualized care by collaborating with the patient, family, and health care team members. (American Nurses Association, 2010). The concept of transcultural nursing aligns with these tenets because it calls on nurses to provide patient-centered care by taking into account the patient’s background, beliefs, culture and values. In this paper, I will identify the factors that made it necessary to develop the transcultural nursing theory, describe the meaning of diversity and its relationship to the field of nursing, and explain three ways that I provide culturally sensitive care to my patients.

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

In this discussion, a Hispanic or Latino group is considered. While the statistic is not available for the city of Cleveland, in Ohio this group represents a 3.7% of the total population as of July 1, 2016 (USCB, 2018). The Hispanic/Latino group represents people from Cuba, Latin America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Caribbean and other Spanish cultures, regardless of race (Juckett, 2013). While a treatment plan in hospitals is the same for all the patients, the perception varies in different ethnic groups or races. Thus, a health care provider need to be aware of Hispanic/Latino cultural beliefs and implement this knowledge into a daily routine.

In the preparation of writing this paper, I reviewed several educational videos from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (n.d.) that show healthcare providers interacting with patients from different cultures. I chose the video that shows a Hispanic man interacting with his surgeon. I chose this video because all counties in Ohio except one are seeing increases in the Hispanic population. There has been a nine

According to the CDC Minority Health Report, people of Mexican heritage are the largest minority group in the U.S. and almost 30% of Hispanics in the United States lacked health insurance as of 2012 (“Minority Health,” 2014). The traditional form of health care practiced by those of Mexican-American heritage is Curanderismo, coming from the Spanish verb “curar,” which means “to heal.” This system regards the individual’s mind, body, and soul as inseparable and therefore

Anne Fadiman wrote this book to document the conflict between cultural barriers and how they affect medical issues. In this book, Lia Lee is a Hmong child was has epilepsy and battles cultural medical differences. The main struggle in this story is the conflict between the doctors and parents because they cannot seem to get on the same page. While writing the book, Fadiman stated that there was a “clash of cultures”. (Fadiman, preface) Meaning, there are two different sides to the story and the problem has not be solved.

When caring for a Native American patient, it is imperative that the nurse provide culturally competent care. In this scenario, there are two main dimensions along which cultural tensions between the patient and the nurse can arise. The first pertains to the actual practices and values of Native American culture, which may be at odds with the practices and values of dominant healthcare institutions. The second is both broader and more subtle: it pertains to the historical relationship of the Native American people and the

Cultural, traditional, and religious values have an influence on health patterns and behaviors exhibited by the community. Hispanic culture is dominant due to the close proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border. Fifty-two percent of households use a language other than English at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Therefore, an understanding of Hispanic culture is necessary for health care workers to effectively care for patients in this community.

Hispanics continue to be underserved and understudied with the lack of set guidelines to evaluate the efficacy of cultural developments and implemented interventions as proven with the scarcity of studies for review. Concerns arise with the potential a population of this magnitude has incurring economic burden due to non-adherence given their cultural beliefs, practices and socioeconomic status. Disciplines in healthcare delivery would benefit by incorporating cultural understanding in their practice as it is imperative in establishing trust, compliance and patient satisfaction (Martin, Williams, Haskard, & DiMatteo, 2005). This paper will incorporate an adaptive framework amenable to the Hispanic culture that can explore and describe contributing factors of patient satisfaction regarding their healthcare delivery. Application of a cultural theoretical framework that evokes reliant provider-patient relationship and will stimulate consideration of possible interventions for the future that ensues evidence-based quality outcomes.

Understanding the hierarchy of the family is imperative in understanding the functions of the family unit. With some familiarity with the different cultures in a given community, a medical professional will be able to ascertain who the head of the household is. The head of the household differs from culture to culture, as such, “misunderstandings which include but are not limited to the involvement of the male in all aspects of health care

In the last twenty years, the rising number of disparities in health and healthcare has increased simultaneously with the influx of minorities within the population (Baldwin, 2003) A4. As the size of an ethnically diverse population steadily continues to increase, so will the level of complexities of patients’ health needs, which nurses and other healthcare staff will be expected to address (Black, 2008) A1. The issue of racial, ethnic and health disparities for minorities exists for several complex reasons, however, even with this being widely known, very little action has been taken to try and correct it (Baldwin, 2003) A4. Research findings suggest that without actively implementing cultural diversity within the healthcare workforce, quality in healthcare will decline while health disparities continue to rise (Lowe & Archibald, 2009) A3. So although the shortage of nursing staff should be a high-priority for change in the U.S., the need for more registered nurses with racially

As a health care professional you should be aware of cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is the existence of different ethnic groups in the same society. It is important to be knowledgeable about cultural diversity so you can understand and respect someone else who has their own unique way of doing things in their life. The United States is one of the countries that have the most cultural diversity. One of the cultures that exist in the United States is the Mexican culture. Mexicans come from Central American Indians, Native Americans, Spanish, and Africans. The majority of Mexican immigrants live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. However, Los Angeles has the highest Mexican population. People