Heritage Assessment Essay

The incidence of cancer is higher in Black Americans, both men and women, than non-Hispanic Whites. Men are more likely to have lung, pancreatic and stomach cancer. They are more likely to die from prostate cancer. Black African American women are 36% more likely to die from breast cancer.

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

Many Chinese people believe in traditional Chinese medical treatments, and if the doctors and nurses disregard their beliefs, then that could lead to mistrust. Chinese people may try traditional approaches first, and then seek medical care if they fail. Communication barriers may delay patients from getting medical treatment. Cross-cultural communication skills are extremely important to avoid miscommunication. A couple accommodations needed in nursing care would be to take some extra time to build a rapport with the patient before discussing any medical issues. Recognize how the Chinese culture views doctors and nurses, and encourage the patient to ask questions, and give them a chance to answer the questions. In the Chinese culture, when the patient is slow to respond to a question, or seems to be hesitant, it is simply a sign that respect is being given to the person that is asking the question (Cross-Cultural Communications for Healthcare Professionals, 2015). Chinese people speak in low volume and considered Americans to speak loud, so health care

Chinese culture is also greatly embedded in religious and philosophical beliefs. The way a relationship is developed between and individual and the society differs according to various beliefs. In China, two common philosophical and religious ideas are Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism

The Chinese culture is built around thousands of years of tradition. Understanding these Chinese beliefs and social influences may benefit you when attending to someone of this culture.

In the poem Heritage by Linda Hogan, Hogan uses the tone of the speaker to demonstrate the shame and hatred she has toward her family, but also the desire for her family’s original heritage. The speaker describes each family member and how they represent their heritage. When describing each member, the speaker’s tone changes based on how she feels about them. The reader can identify the tone by Hogan’s word choices and the positive and negative outlooks on each member of the family.

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).

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 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

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

In China they have about 1.3 billion people, making up a little more than 20% of the world’s population. It’s no surprise that with that many people in one country that the culture there would hold many different beliefs and traditions. Chinese are known for many things and their health care practices are one of them. They use different medicines to treat the ill, have different techniques to insure that women have a good pregnancy and a healthy baby as well as old family traditions from how a family is ran to what they do when someone passes away. A lot of these traditions can compare to other cultures where many are also so different it takes some understanding to get used to them.

The optimal health is equally important in every culture, but the reaction towards situation requiring decision-making about health can be different in every culture. Muslim receives illness and death with patience and prayers. They consider illness as punishment for their sins. They also consider death as a part of a journey to meet God. However, they are strongly encouraged to seek medical help when required. The concept of health maintenance has a significant importance in Islam; there are some foods that are not permit like pork and alcohol. Cleanliness has a high importance. Circumcision of male infant is recommended. ("," October, 17th 2012) Where as, in Hispanic and Mexican culture health maintenance is supported mainly by using folk medicine. Mexican believe their health problems may be a result of god’s will, or they may not have the resources for conventional care and turn only to traditional healers, such as curanderos, or herbal remedies to treat their ailments. ("," ) There are other barriers for Mexicans to

Readers of Alice Walker's, "Everyday Use", discusses how the narrator realizes that Maggie understands her own heritage. What does the narrator mean when she says, "Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout?" Does the narrator do something amazing that she has not done before? Some readers opine that the narrator knows what it really feels like to have family. Others say that the narrator recognizes the importance of giving. However, both these readings are not with the point. The narrator realizes that Maggie should have the quilts because they embody her heritage.

In Japanese culture, they believe some foods are categorized hot and cold. For instance, the vegetable with roots like radish and ginger are considered to be a hot food and consuming those food to maintain the body temperature warm and keep a good blood circulation. On the other hand, some vegetables make the body temperature cooler are cucumber, lettuce and tomatoes. More Japanese eat those vegetables making some salad and consume more during a hot summer moth to lower the body temperature. Hispanic classifies diseases “hot” and “cold.” The examples of “Hot” diseases are diabetes and hypertension verses “Cold” diseases are mistral cramps and pneumonia. (Maria Hernandez, personal communication, April 29, 2014). People believe that they can avoid illness by balancing and maintaining between. Moreover, in Hispanic culture, there is a belief called “evil eye” that uses turquoise to eliminate bad stuff, protect their health and avoid harmful event to them. People in the Philippine are very religious and their dominant religion is Catholic. They go to church and attend mass weekly. They pray diety and worship for (Mary Smith, personal communication, April 30, 2014).

There are various cultures in the world. Cultural diversity has brought cross cultural interactions beyond geographical boundaries. Every culture has values and beliefs which reflects cultural and social influences, relationships, and personal needs in an individual. Health cultural values “shape human behaviors and determine what individuals will do to maintain their health status, how they will care for themselves, and others who become ill, and where and from whom they will seek health care” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). Transcultural nursing is a practice to transform health care and help people of diverse cultures. An analysis of Leninger's vision for the work of transcultural nursing indicates that there are many barriers and