Cultural Healthcare Practices of Hispanic Women During Pregnancy and Birth

“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

“Americans can take come pride in the fact that attaining what the medical profession calls “cultural competency” is a goal of most health care institutions. However, achieving this goal in today’s health care environment, filled with diverse patient and provider populations, is no easy task. American hospitals are increasingly being staffed by and serving diverse populations. This creates the ideal breeding ground for conflict and misunderstanding among the staff and inferior patient care” (Galanti, 2011). To gain a more thorough understanding of this concept, I will be giving four examples or viewpoints that are completely different, when looking at the Hispanic belief against the Native American point of view.

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).

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.

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.

During clinical time in the nursing program there are many opportunities for students to explore their new found nursing skills. While engaging in patient care responsibilities there are many languages, customs, values, lifestyles, beliefs, and behaviors that will differ from their own. Each patient may need healthcare providers to consider certain aspects in order to provide culturally competent care. There are many cultures that have migrated to the United States over the years including the people of Haiti. There are many aspects of their healthcare ideals that may need to be considered while providing healthcare in the hospital setting. This cultural assessment will consider the healthcare matters of an 81-year-old woman on the

The term culture is defined as “the thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups” (Potter & Perry, 2013). With the increase of culturally diverse populations in the United States, it is important for nurses to practice cultural competence. Cultural competence is the ability to acquire specific behaviors, skills, attitudes, and policies in a system that permits “effective work in a cross-cultural setting” (OMH, 2013). Being culturally competent is essential because nurses who acknowledges and respects a patient’s health beliefs and practices are more likely to have positive health outcomes (OMH, 2012). Every culture has certain views and attitudes concerning

These religious and spiritual influences play a major role in the Hispanics health, illness and daily life. In much a similar manner, the Native American Indian family adopts the cultural beliefs to associate with illness and health. They believe that a person’s state of exists when he or she exists in harmony with nature and sickness occurs when an imbalance between the natural or supernatural forces and the sick individual exists (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). Traditional health believes and practices involving healing ceremonies and rituals restore balance when illness happens. “These can be conducted by their traditional medicine men or women, who are thought to have compelling powers, the ability to read minds, and know-how in concocting medicine, drugs and poisons.” For the white young family, the cultural belief of invincibility and youth are the driving force behind health prevention (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). “Focus on the temporary is regularised, while thinking about health is assigned to an adult person where family accountabilities pertain.” Protecting against illness or disease does not feature into their daily lives. Disease or illness is something that is insubstantial and distant, and unimaginable to their young, resilient bodies and thus irrelevant (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).

By the same token, Hispanics highly value spending time with loved ones. In the health care setting, Hispanics may show their “togetherness,” which means their closeness of families (Giger, 2008). The nurse should allow them to have family in their room if possible, to aid in the facilitation of information from the client. Despite the need for closeness, Hispanics may ask to have the same gender sex care provider for their needs, and the nurse should be able to accommodate this (Giger, 2008).

With the large increase multicultural population in the United States, nurses encounter patients with differences in healthcare beliefs, values and customs. To provide adequate nursing care, nurses must be aware of these differences. They must respect and acknowledge the patient’s culture. To do this, nurses need education on cultural competence to ensure patient satisfaction and better patient outcomes.

Statistics show that the Columbus, Ohio metro area is becoming more diverse. Even though the majority of the population is made up of Whites, that percentage is decreasing while the percentage of Blacks, Latinos and Asians is increasing (Diversity Data, 2012). I work in an outpatient unit that serves a diverse patient population, and Leininger’s concepts of transcultural nursing highlight the importance of learning about the cultural influences that affect the health and wellness of ethnic populations (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). Transcultural nursing addresses cultural influences such as values, beliefs, and behavior and examines how they affect health and wellness. In this paper, I will discuss perceptions of health and illness in the Hispanic community, examine the overarching issue presented in a video that I reviewed, discuss what can be done to overcome the issue in the video, and share a barrier that I experience in my nursing practice and how I overcome the barrier.

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the United States, and the majority of them are Mexican in origin (Kemp, 2001). The Roman Catholic Church plays a vital role in the culture and daily life of many Mexican Americans. Consequently, healthcare personnel must become culturally competent in dealing with the different beliefs possessed by these individuals. Nurses must have the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver care that is congruent with the patient’s cultural beliefs and practices (Kearney-Nunnery, 2010). The ways that a nurse cares for a Mexican American patient during the process of dying or at the critical time of death is especially important. The purpose of this paper is to examine

Culturally Competent Health Care: A Look into Mexican-American Culture With cultural diversity in the United States coming to an all-time high, it is essential for nursing professionals to learn to provide culturally congruent care for their patients. In order to provide this type of care, nurses must realize that every culture has their own set of values, beliefs, behavior patterns and lifestyles. By gathering information specific to a culture such as their definition of health, traditional health practices, and typical behaviors regarding health, nurses are able to use preservation and accommodation in order to provide culturally congruent care for their patients.

I chose this article because I find it interesting and of great help to any nursing and health care professional; I am Hispanic myself and constantly looking for better ways to help my community. I personally see my grandmother struggling whenever she needs to see her physician, as she sometimes does not understand what him and his staff are telling her. On another note nursing is an ever changing career and the Hispanic culture is growing at an enormous rate, becoming culturally competent does not only provide the patient with good care but can make the nurses’ job easier and more rewarding. I do feel that there should be more research on this subject; the best way to learn about a patient’s cultural beliefs is to ask the patient. I think that the population that the author intended to target is health care professionals; however, I know that any immigrant can benefit from reading this article.