According to US Census Bureau, Hispanic is one of largest minority ethnic group in the United States and account for 15.1 % of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). With an increasing number of diverse cultures within the health care system, it is important for health care professionals to cultivate diversity and cultural awareness when caring for peope from different cultures than theirs. Moreover, providing care that is culturally sensitive can result in improved health status for all patients. Clinicians should keep in mind that everyone has his/her own values, beliefs, and assumptions that influence healthcare. In addition, patients from different race, ethnicity, gender, and religion response to health care services differently. …show more content…
In Spanish culture, the patient may or may not be the primary decision-maker with regard to treatment. Decisions can be made solely by the patient, the entire family, or by a designate family member (Tate, 2003). Moreover, the mutual reliant on each other with family connects with health and illness (Padilla & Villalobos, 2007). With my patient, to increase the masculine of the husband and the power of the head household, I always include the husband when important information is being discussed or when treatment decisions are being made. In addition, including the mother or the oldest daughter who are viewed as primary care-givers when they are available will increase the patient’s confidence and adherence to treatment.
Explain Who the Patient Is
Mrs. A is a 54 year-old Mexican woman. She is married and has four children. Her husband is unemployed and working in a farm, while she stays at home and takes care of her parents. The household annual income ranges from 32,000-38,000 dollars per year. And certainly she doesn’t have a health insurance. She lives in a low socioeconomic area with her primary language is Spanish and very limited English. She has less than high school education level and low medical literacy. Regarding social organization, she values Hispanic culture which emphases the importance of the extended family. That means the family includes many people in their extended families, not only parents and siblings, but grandparents,
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
The increasing population of immigrants in the United States has contributed to health disparities in the health care system. Cultural competence can remove health disparities by eliminating personal biases, and treating every person with respect. Simply recognizing and accepting different cultures is not enough, one must be able to consistently recognize and understand the differences in order to be culturally competent. Knowledge and culturally competent practices are a must for nurses to deliver quality care in our rapidly changing multicultural world (Edelman, 2014 p. 25).
In the United States today cultural diversity is growing more prevalent every day. The report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM: Unequal treatment, 2002) presented information that racial and ethnic minorities of all ages receive lower quality health care compared to their non-minority counterparts. Every effort should be made to stop the disparities surrounding cultural differences while attempting to understand the cultural health behaviors, increase cultural
In the United States society is well aware that hispanics have been treated with a negative attitude in the health care providing services. Just like anybody else no matter what race they are, they should have the same treatment. This situation needs to be more acknowledged and better controlled. White patients have received better quality of care than any other race including black americans, hispanics, american indians, and asian patients. One might argue that the health care providers are free to express their opinion however they like, but just like any job these health care providers have to treat everyone the same and make them feel comfortable. “ Negative implicit attitudes about people of color may contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care.” In many cases health care providers have implicit bias in terms of positive attitudes towards whites and negative attitudes towards any other color. “Fifteen relevant studies were identified through searches of bibliographic databases and reference lists of studies that met inclusion criteria.”
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
Latinos, collectively the nation's largest minority group, vary substantially in terms of socioeconomic and legal status, their country of origin and the extent of ongoing contact with that country, their region of residence within the United States, their generation status and levels of acculturation, and psychosocial factors (Elder, Ayala, Parra-Medina, & Talavera, 2009). Due to these various issues navigating the health care system can prove difficult especially when it comes to the end of life care, it is prevalent in the Mexican culture for the elderly to be taken care of by their younger family members such as their children. However, if they have a major illness or the family simply don’t have the ability to take care of them anymore
When clinically assessing patients in care settings, it is paramount for health professionals to elicit pertinent information that could be crucial for delivery of care. This is particularly important in the United States because the increasing diversity in racial and ethnic composition of the population has presented cultural challenges that care givers must navigate to provide culturally competent service. Cultural competence during delivery of care requires sensitivity to the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of patients (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, 2002). As a consequence, care providers need cultural assessment tools that will enable them
Critically analyse one of the main challenges, barriers, and enablers for cultural competence in health care when working in a cross-cultural environment.
Social organization based on premises of family values, respect to older generations and deference to healthcare staff, physicians and nurses (Grady, 2014). Time concept is considered in this group and many activities can be performed at the same time. Priority, in this case, is given to an activity that person can be related to. Knowing this, healthcare providers should consider spending slightly more time with this patient. Environmental factors play and definitive role in close-knit Hispanic/Latino communities. Social influences can change and influence health related behaviors, and major domain is immediate and extended family (Larsen, Pekmezi, Marquez, Benitez, & Marcus,
“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.
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 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
With the increasing immigrant population a third barrier affecting access to health care is a cultural barrier. Culture barriers can include values and beliefs, language and race and ethnicity. Health beliefs and behavior can become a barrier when patients decide not to seek medical treatment and instead turn to home remedies and healers when treating illnesses. Approximately 10% of Americans speak a language other than English and can be classified ad being limited in their proficiency. For these patients language becomes a barrier and they are less likely to receive optimal medical treatment (Flores, 2006). Horton and Johnson (2010) stress the importance of communication in reducing disparities and increasing the trust of patients in the health care system. As reported by the American College of Physicians, evidence reveals that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to receive inferior care when compared with non-minorities. This occurs even when minorities have access to insurance and adequate income (Racial and ethnic disparities in health care, 2010).
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).
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.