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Heritage Assessment Essay

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Heritage Assessment
Cheri Montoro
Grand Canyon University
NRS-429V
Linda Gobin
August 06, 2013

Heritage Assessment
This paper will assess and discuss the usefulness of applying the Heritage Assessment tool to evaluate three different families each one from different cultural backgrounds consisting of Greek, Italian, and Hispanic ethnicities. This paper will also compare similarities and differences related to health maintenance, health protection and health restoration and the cultural uniqueness of each individual interviewed.
The Heritage Assessment tool is a very useful tool. It appears simplistic in its development and use. There are twenty-nine questions on the tool that provide for a very natural flow in …show more content…

This tool also allows for a basic understanding of an individual’s communication skills, religious affiliation, heritage, family orientation and socialization and most importantly how one prioritizes their cultural uniqueness to their life.
In comparison of three families from different cultural backgrounds consisting of Greek, Italian and Hispanic, differences and similarities were found on cultural approaches to health maintenance. One similarity is that culture is central to their health habits. Health Maintenance for all three cultures is very similar based on the extreme importance of a religious affiliation. Religious affiliation is of paramount importance to health and what is perceived as health. However; religious affiliation is in itself different, where the percentages of Greeks practice Eastern Orthodox Religion and most Hispanics and Italians practice Catholicism. All three cultures believe that to maintain health you have to be in affiliation with the church and consistently practice religious beliefs for protection against harm and illness. Most individuals of all three cultures pray every day and have a religious icon in their home. In the Hispanic culture, Greek culture, and Italian culture food plays a very important role in health maintenance. A good appetite is associated with good health, Children, are not forced to eat foods that they resist in the Hispanic culture because their preferences are respected (M. Chavez, personal

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