Heritage Assessment of Three Culturally Diverse Families

Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V

January 7, 2016

Heritage Assessment of Three Culturally Diverse Families

The United States has been known as the “melting pot” of the world. This continues to be true as a large amount of the population includes immigrants from across the world. America’s diverse population demands that health care workers be culturally competent (Edelman et al, 2014). In order to be culturally competent, the patient’s health traditions should be addressed as they relate to their ethnicity, religion, and heritage. This can be achieved by completion of the Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT). The Heritage Assessment Tool allows health care professionals, especially nurses, to have improved patient-nurse relationships and allows the patient to be treated as a whole being with respect to their beliefs and traditions. This paper will discuss the usefulness of applying the HAT as it evaluates the needs of three diverse families. The families of Vietnamese Americans, Mexican Americans, and Italian Americans will be discussed to identify the differences in health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. The families’ health traditions based on their cultural heritage will also be identified.
Usefulness of Applying the Heritage Assessment Tool The Heritage Assessment tool evaluates the degree to which an individual lives by their cultural beliefs and traditions. The questionnaire contains 29 questions to help determine if a person is traditional in their culture or if they are more acculturated with less compliance to their traditional practices. The questions examine family relationships, religious beliefs, ethnic traditions and beliefs. The tool brings awareness to the many culturally based health beliefs and practices. The HAT allows the nurse to become aware of the patient’s culture and insight to their background to be culturally competent (Spector, 2004). In order to provide patient-centered care, it is imperative that nurses be culturally competent. Nurses must acknowledge patients’ diversity and culture to provide care that meets the needs of their patients. Having an understanding of these differences allows nurse to correlate the patient’s culture with their attitude towards health promotion and disease treatment, and create treatment plans unique to the patient’s diversity. This cultural awareness has shown to help decrease racial disparities and improve patient outcomes (Green & Reinckens, 2013). The Heritage Assessment Tool allowed a comparison and contrast between the three culturally diverse families interviewed. Some areas of their culture that influences their health maintenance are their ethnic foods consumed, religious practices, and family dynamics. Components affecting their health protection are folk beliefs and traditions, as well as religious practices and superstitions. Health restoration is defined by the holistic view and approach to health, such as the use of herbs and ethnic rituals.
Vietnamese American Family The first heritage examined was Vietnamese. The individual interviewed was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States at the age of five, thirty-four years ago. This first generation Vietnamese American family adheres very closely to their ethnic background. In Vietnam, this family lived in a rural community and, like most families lived with extended family members. The family continues to live with grandparents in the U.S. and has strong ties with the other extended family members living here, as well as in Vietnam. The family kept its surname of Dao, but some members of the family have changed their first names to a more American one. The Dao family practices the Buddhist religion and follows the traditions and beliefs. One example of the Buddhist practice affecting health care is their after death rituals. Family and friends chant over the deceased person to help their soul go to the after life. The body must remain with the family until chanting is complete. The amount of time spent chanting is determined by a religious formula and depends on the age of the deceased. They also perform various holistic health practices, such as the use of herbs and teas, coining, and cupping. The Dao family speaks in Vietnamese when at home and prepares mostly ethnic foods. They are active members of their religious institution and maintain ties with other Vietnamese Americans to participate in various ethnic activities and holiday celebrations to keep their Vietnamese heritage strong.
Mexican American Family The next heritage assessed was Mexican. This Mexican American family is second generation living in the United States. The original family name of Zamora was kept upon arrival to the U.S. The parents were born in Mexico and immigrated while the grandparents continue to live in Mexico. Even though they are a second-generation family, their Mexican culture remains deep -rooted. The adult children continue to live with their parents, as is common among this culture. Family bonds are important and maintained mostly through large family gatherings. Spanish is the primary language spoken, but is mixed with English, and reading and writing Spanish is not fluent. They family has married and dated outside their culture. The Zamora family prepares many tradition Mexican dishes such as tacos, and tamales, and beans and rice are a staple. They eat fresh fruit, but commonly add salted chili powder on top and only consume a small amount of fresh vegetables. The Zamora family is of the Catholic faith and practice many religious rituals although church attendance is minimal. For example, the family fasts and maintains a modified diet during lent, but does not have regular Sunday church attendance.
Italian American Family The third family heritage assessed was Italian. This family had the least number of positive responses on the HAT and, therefore, has the least identification with its traditional heritage. The Cianciolo Family is fourth generation Americans and assimilated to the American culture. Much like the other two families, the family unit is very important in their culture, although grandparents and extended family do not live in the same household, but are nearby. They have a large family with seven siblings and an even larger extended family. Large family gatherings are common, especially during the holidays. They consume many Italian favorites, such as lasagna, ravioli, eggplant parmesan and veal, but also enjoy much of the American cuisine as well. Wine is the usual beverage at dinner and parties. Italian is not spoken in their house, except for a few words. The Cianciolo family is Catholic and maintain many religious beliefs and traditions.
Comparison of Health Traditions and Practices Among the Three Heritages There is a common thread with all three of the diverse cultures discussed: family. All three value family and their families provide support. For example, if a family member was hospitalized, they would be in constant presence of many family members during their stay. Mexican-Americans and Italian–Americans tend to follow the advice and guidance of family members for health decisions. The men in these two cultures are known to be stoic and not forth coming about pain. The Mexican-Americans and Vietnamese-Americans tend to use home remedies using herbs and folk rituals before seeking medical attention. These two cultures also believe that illness is a result of an imbalance between hot and cold, which explains the overdressed child with a fever. Awareness and acknowledgement of these cultural beliefs and traditions is vital for health care workers to provide individualized care, and to reduce health disparities.
Conclusion
This paper illustrated the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment Tool to gain cultural competency by identifying cultural differences and similarities. Cultural awareness and how it relates to the patient’s health maintenance, health promotion, and health restoration, allows the nurse to provide whole patient-centered care with respect to their traditions and beliefs. The result of cultural competency is improved nurse-patient relationships, and a decrease in health disparities.

References

Edelman, C., Kudzma, E., & Mandle, C. (2014). Health promotion throughout the life span (8th ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.
Green, Z. D., & Reinckens, J. (2013). Cultural Competency in Health Care: What Can Nurses Do?. Maryland Nurse, 14(4), 16-16 1p.
Kemp, C. (2005). Mexican & Mexican-Americans: Health beliefs and practices. Retrieved from http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Charles_Kemp/www/hispanic_health.htm#healthbeliefs
Spector, R. E. (2004). Cultural diversity in health and illness (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Health.