Heritage Assessment
Renee R. Trent
Grand Canyon University: NRS-429VN
August 20, 2016
Heritage is a cultural aspect or tradition that has been passed down through generations (Heritage Assessment, 2016). Why would the health professional need to know about a patient’s cultural background? How would this affect the care provided? Health care is specific to the individual needs of a patient, and no two are alike. Nurses should conduct an assessment of the patients’ cultural beliefs, values, religious beliefs, and practices. It is important to learn the meaning of the illness from the patients point of view. Data collected from the cultural assessment will help the patient and nurse to develop a mutual and culturally acceptable plan
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One member from each family filled out the heritage assessment questionnaire and discussed how ethnic/cultural background influences their lifestyle today.
Vietnamese Culture
The Vietnamese woman interviewed moved from Vietnam to the United States when she was thirty years old. She was raised by both parents and five brothers. Parents stayed in Vietnam. Extended family live in Southern California. She has three children and seven grandchildren. Family very important in culture. Buddhism is the religion of most Vietnamese and involves a view point that man was passed to this life to suffer and believe they came from dirt and will return to it when they die (Nutrition and Fasting in Vietnamese Cutlure, 2001). It is customary for the entire extended family to visit the dying loved one in shifts. Intense emotion is expressed and encouraged.
Important health decisions are made by the entire family. It is not uncommon for three generations to live under one roof and the oldest father is in charge. The people of Vietnamese culture tend to hide their true feelings or fears as it is considered rude to speak up or offer frank honesty (Kemp,
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was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His mother was born in Ireland and arrived to Ellis Island in 1922 at the age of nineteen and spoke Irish and English. Father born in Chicago. Maternal grandparents born, raised, and died in Ireland. Paternal grandparents born and raised in Chicago. He was raised in the city, lived with parents and six siblings in a three-bedroom apartment. Family brought up strict Roman Catholic and attended parochial school. Meals cooked every day and entire family expected to eat together. Religious holidays were all celebrated and included attending
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.
The United States has become a multicultural country. Everywhere you look, you see a plethora of cultures that range from Hispanic and African to Asian and American Indian. The varied traditions and beliefs of a multicultural country impact how nurses implement patient-centered care. The best way to provide optimal care in nursing is to become better informed in how different cultures view health maintenance, protection, and restoration. The Heritage Assessment is a wonderful tool to obtain information that can be used
In the Chinese culture drinking ginger tea is a means of protecting health and keeping the Yin and Yang in balance. For example, hot energy can be cooled by a cool herbal tea, or cold energy can be warmed by warm herbal tea. The culture also tends to protect their elders from bad news. For example, a son may divert the conversation
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
The Heritage Assessment Tool can be adopted as a dependable tool to gauge, health maintenance, restoration and safeguard of personal, cultural beliefs. The adoption of health assessment tool helps meet the prerequisites of diverse patient populations to offer quality all-inclusive care. The following paper reviews the assessment of three culturally dissimilar families, and demonstrate how a nurse would continue with health promotion centred on the variances in health traditions between the three cultures. The three cultures include Hispanic culture, Native American Indian culture and White American culture. The objectives of this essay are
Nurses have the responsibility of caring for a diverse group of people. These people come from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds. Religion plays a major role in patient care and has for many years. Cultural competency is a major component of nursing practices. Understanding culture is imperative in knowing what is important to a patient and how to address his or her healthcare needs. Understanding culture is also important when determining what suggestions to make about interventions for treatment. Culture is defined as many people interacting and sharing with one another their patterns of behavior, beliefs and values (Burkhardt, G. & Nathaniel, A., 2014).
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
Cultural competence in nursing is imperative for effective patient care. A nurse must know his or her own values and beliefs as well as knowing about a patient cultural practices in relation to healthcare. Cultural competence is defined by some as: “the learned, shared and transmitted values, beliefs, norms and lifeways of a particular group that guides their thinking, decisions and actions.” Also it is noted that an important change to this definition is “the recognition of the dynamic,
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
The United States is a country of diversity represented by many different cultures. It has been proven that culture has a significant impact on health beliefs and behaviors (Edelman, et al, 2014), therefore it is imperative that health care providers, especially nurses, be culturally competent in their delivery of care. It is not enough to merely be aware of the prominent origins and statistics of different cultures and ethnicities, but rather it is crucial to be inquisitive and focus on the family and individual as practices differ and evolve over time. Rachel Spector developed a Heritage Assessment interview as a useful tool to aid in understanding how strongly an individual or family subscribes to specific cultural traditions and
The United States is a diverse accumulation of cultural backgrounds which can often set the stage for feelings of confusion, anger, mistrust, and a host of other emotions when dissimilar cultures disagree. Cultural competence in nursing can help eliminate these barriers and provide a platform for nursing to follow in the quest to understand a patient's culture and background. When a nurse takes the time to learn about a given culture prior to providing care, it conveys she respects the patient's right to their beliefs, customs, and culture. It does not necessarily mean the nurse agrees with their practices but
The predominant view of human nature in Vietnam is deeply rooted in Buddhist thought. Buddhism teaches that humans are born to suffer
“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
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.
The second family is from Nova Scotia. She lived there with three brothers and one sister, is Canadian-American, with English her native language. Many relatives lived nearby in her small town. Her family moved to the United States when she was little, lived here for many years, then moved back to Nova Scotia. She married young and currently resides in North Carolina. They are practicing Roman Catholics. Her faith is very important to her, along with strong family values. Holiday celebrations are spent preparing food and spending time with family. Family members usually die of old age with no chronic illnesses identified. They visit the Doctor regularly for physicals and illnesses as needed.