Heritage Assessment Essay

Heritage Assessment and Healthcare Roopneet kaur Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V Family-centered Health Promotion The Heritage Assessment device is considered to “give nurses an understanding of the patient’s traditional health and illness beliefs and practices so that culturally appropriate interventions can be initiated. The tool is a series of twenty nine questions.

These twenty nine questions are designed to determine a patient’s ethnic, cultural, and religious background,” “Hispanic culture combines religion with a strong belief in spirituality and the supernatural. Saints represent many specialized needs nd there are specific ones for cancer, dying, and bodily ills. These spiritual and religious influences play an important role in their health, illness, and daily life,” (Askim-Lovseth & Aldana, 2010). The United States is home for diverse culture.

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Culture is defined as “the learned, shared, and transmitted values, beliefs, norms, and lifeway practices of a particular group that guide thinking, decisions, and actions in patterned ways” “Cultural competence refers to the ability of nurses to understand and accept the cultural backgrounds of individuals and provide care that best meets he persons’ needs??”not the nurses’ needs” In some strict Islamic societies where girls and women are segregated and allowed to appear in public only if totally covered from head to toe, deprivation of sunlight can impair the cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D, causing a deficiency of this vitamin and putting the women at risk for rickets or osteomalacia” (Trollope-kumar & Last). Knowledge and respect for various cultural world views, customs, values, and traditions are needed to negotiate different approaches in developing a health-promotion plan with families” (Edelman Mandle, 2010, p. 472). Cultural care is a comprehensive model based on one’s believes and practices. “These rituals and healing ceremonies may be carried out by the medicine men or women, who are believed to have hypnotic powers, the gift of mind reading, and expertise in concocting drugs, medicine, and poisons,” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). Another common belief among American Indians is that, “an individual’s state of health exists when a person lives in harmony with nature, and illnesses occur when there is an imbalance between the ill person and natural or supernatural orces,” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010).

When it came to the Caucasian/German family, they had a different cultural belief. They believed that youth and invincibility were what was behind health prevention. “Protecting against disease or illness does not factor into their (the youthful) everyday lives. In their opinion, illness is distant and insubstantial, and inconceivable to their young strong bodies and therefore Irrelevant,” (Melr et al. , 2 “By Incorporatlng tne assessment 0T cultural DelleTs and practices into the individual’s plan of care, nurses can demonstrate respect and ake a step forward in developing culturally appropriate patterns of caring” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010, p. 447-448).

The need for all health care providers to be client- centered and cross-culturally competent is well-documented. To improve the quality of life and health care of culturally diverse elders, providers should be aware of their unique health and social service needs. In the case of ethnic minority elders, special emphasis should be given to the cultural context of their needs. Health care professionals need to be able to assess, understand and work with traditional health ractices used by aging patients of all cultures. Instructing undergraduate students about assessing heritage and culture is a teaching strategy that promotes cultural competence.

Students analyze the responses obtained and then summarize their observations in a narrative, noting the similarities and differences from their own cultural background. Subsequently, they evaluate this information to determine the benefit to their professional practice from this cultural knowledge. Students discuss their conclusions with class participants in order to expand learning about numerous cultural backgrounds. The goal of this Heritage Assessment activity is to provide students with the knowledge necessary to dispense health services in a manner acceptable and useful to older persons because it is congruent with their cultural background and expectations.

The experience is a demonstrated integration of the awareness of one’s personal biases and the impact on professional behavior; the knowledge of population specific health-related cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors; and skills necessary in working with culturally diverse populations. The feedback from students enrolled in this class of cultural competency has been very ositive and students have recognized the benefits of incorporating knowledge of the cultural heritage of their older patients into their practice. Many students recognize for the first time how culturally related health practices present in their own family are not universally practiced. The global applicability of their cultural awareness is discussed as well as the need to avoid stereotypical assumptions of certain cultural groups.

Overall, completing a Heritage Assessment with older adults has proven to be a beneficial learning experience for undergraduate health professions students. References Askim-Lovseth, M. & Aldana, A. (2010). Looking beyond “affordable” health care: cultural understanding and sensitivity- necessities in addressing the health care disparities of the U. S. Hispanic population. Health Marketing Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/ 21058099? dopt=Abstract. Edelman, Carol Lium, Mandle, Carol Lynn (2009). Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span [7] (Vitalsource Bookshelf). Mier, N. , Ory, M. , Toobert, D. , Smith, M. , Osuna, D. , McKay, J. , & Rimer, B. (2010). A Qualitative Case Study Examining Intervention Tailoring For Minorities.

American Journal of Health Behavior. Retrieved from http://www. med. upenn. edu/psych/articles_2010. html. Blats, K. K. , Hayes, J. S. , Kozier, B. , & Erb, G. (2006). In Professional Nursing Practice (5th ed. ). New Jersey: Upper Saddle River. Edelman, C. , & Mandle, C. L. (2010). Health promotion throughout the life span (7th ed. ). St. Louis: Mosby. Leininger, M. M. (1988, November). Leininger’s theory of nursing: Cultural care diversity and universality. Nursing science Quarterly, I rollope-Kumar ren & Last, Jonn M Encyclopedia of Public Health I Cultural factors. Retrieved from http:// www. enotes. com/public-health- encyclopedia/cultural-factors

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