...Heritage Assessments Guide Care Plans Heritage Assessments Guide Care Plans As we examine a person’s health status; it is important to note how one has formed beliefs of wellness and health promotion. In a populated, culturally diverse country; it is vital to comprehend and respect the traditions of these beliefs as we teach health promotion, set goals for health restoration, and evaluate health maintenance. Just as recording the vital signs of a patient becomes the blueprint in determining their base line for optimal health; a heritage assessment tool becomes the compass in providing direction toward creating a successful care plan. Evaluation of Heritage Assessments Health assessment tools are useful in evaluating the current philosophy of a patient’s health and wellness. Culture has a multi-faceted effect on a person. It can affect food choices, activity levels, determine when to seek health care, influence lifestyle behaviors, and how health care regimens will be followed. As an individual philosophy is revealed, it can assist in determining which lifestyle behaviors is contributing to the overall health or illness of the patient. The capability of teaching strategies can be rated in an effort to respectfully teach lifestyle modification behaviors. Trends and traditions can be determined with goals adapted to correlate with these cultural attributes (Spector, 2004). Heritage assessments tools also assist in comparing our own belief systems with that of others which...
Words: 1532 - Pages: 7
...Heritage Assessment Paul Bockoven Grand Canyon University NRS429-V October 14, 2012 Heritage Assessment Cultural assessments can be useful tools for a registered nurse to develop adequate plans of care, especially when it comes to education. They have limits however, as not every individual within a certain cultural ‘category’ can be expected to conform the way their heritage may dictate. Assigning a score to any person to predict how they may act, or learn, is contrary to the direction nursing care plans in general have taken. With that in mind, there is some value to using tools like the heritage assessment as a baseline, or starting point. The problem arises because of this particular tool being used to generalize instead of individualize. Developing a sense of a person’s cultural heritage and assigning an ambiguous score has no real meaning when the focus of a care plan is not supposed to take into account anything that is not directly related to the individual for whom it is being tailored. Standards clearly state that the assessment, planning and delivery of a person's care must be centered on the individual, and developed with them or their significant others (Rollin, 2011, p. 541). A person filling out the heritage assessment may, in fact, not adhere to or agree with it’s findings, may not understand it’s significance and as such, this tool could actually lead a caregiver in the wrong direction. The idea that any person who, according to this tool, identifies...
Words: 1484 - Pages: 6
...Heritage Assessment: Cultural Differences Jennifer L. Moul Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V March 30, 2014 Heritage Assessment: Cultural Differences Heritage assessment tools are used as a guide to assist in developing plans based on an indivudals cultural assssement. Heritage assessment tools prompt the interviewer to ask questions that pertain to their family’s background such as parent origins, race, relgious beliefs, customs, and practices. Gaining knowledge of an individual’s background will allow a health care professional to build plans that will be achievable. Achieving optimal health requires assessment and treating the individual human being. Reflecting on Jean Watson’s theory around caring, “Theory specifically involves the caring of a person’s mind, body, and soul” (Zerwekh & Claborn, 2009). Watson’s 10 carative factors represent the human caring values, the following factors are essential and necessary to understand and treat the whole-human being: Maintain humanistic view, Promote faith and hope, sensitivity of oneself and others, development of trust, acceptance of feelings positive or negative, systematic approach to problem solving, teaching and learning, create a healing environment, support the gratification of needs, allow for spiritualism. Recognizing the Most Precious and Powerful Source is the Human Being (Edelman, Mandel, & Elizabeth. 2014), defines culture “as an element of ethnicity, refers to integrated patterns of human behavior that...
Words: 1026 - Pages: 5
...Family Centered Health Promotion: Heritage Assessment Tool Janice Ward NRS-429V May 31, 2015 Family Centered Health Promotion: Heritage Assessment Tool A critical skill in nursing is to assess multicultural patients in the USA today. The culturally competent nurse is able to evaluate the needs of clients and families through the use of a Heritage Assessment Tool. The successful completion of a Heritage Assessment Tool will provide the basis for understanding traditional health and illness beliefs and practices. The incorporation of the patient’s The Journal of Transcultural Nursing states as it’s 6th standard of practice for transcultural nursing the following: Nurses shall recognize the effect of health care policies, delivery systems, and resources on their patient populations and shall empower and advocate for their patients as indicated. Nurses shall advocate for the inclusion of their patient’s cultural beliefs and practices in all dimensions of their health care. (Lauderdale, Milstead, Nardi, Purnell, Douglas, Pierce, Rosenkoeter, Pacquiao, Callister, Hattar-Pollara, 2011) In order for the nurse to support their patient in receiving the best of health care it is imperative the nurse understand their patient’s heritage. “Health care organizations should ensure that patients receive from all staff members effective, understandable, and respectful care that is provided in a manner compatible with their cultural health beliefs and practices...
Words: 1756 - Pages: 8
...Heritage Assessment importance for patient care Melissa Conover Grand Canyon University NUR-429 Angel Godbolt January 25, 2014 Heritage Assessment Importance for Patient Care Patients from all nationalities and cultures are admitted to hospitals and other healthcare services daily. Each culture has its own unique beliefs and traditions. One’s culture is not necessarily related to their skin color. It cannot be assumed that a patient who may have an olive complexion is of Latino descent. They may be of Jamaican, Indian, American Indian, or of numerous other cultures that have this characteristic trait. A Heritage Assessment Tool is a respectable tool that would give the treatment team an understanding of how to progress with the care of a patient from a different culture. According to Healthy People 2020, ideas about health and behaviors are shaped by communication, information and technology that people interact with every day. Health communication and information technology are key to healthcare, public health, and the way society views health. In following that report, the Healthcare Assessment Questioner could be completed upon admission to healthcare services and help serve as a guide for the multidisciplinary team. In doing so, the dietician could compare the patient’s cultural foods with the diagnosis and help create a diet plan suitable for their lifestyle. Social Services would have an idea of whom and how to approach family or the patient to help...
Words: 1064 - Pages: 5
...Heritage Assessment Grand Canyon University 7/5/2014 Introduction Many times the United States is referred to as a melting pot of people, but this description of the diverse cultures and heritages that make up our nation fails to recognize the extreme individuality of the people here. Perhaps a better description would be a salad bowl, with each part and piece amazingly unique from the rest. Culture is a learned way of thinking and acting. “The behavioral, intellectual, and emotional forms of life expression represent a cultural heritage that is passed on from generation to generation” (Smith, 2009). Culture and heritage greatly influence all aspects of a person’s health. One’s heritage may determine a persons beliefs relating to the physical and /or spiritual approaches that people use to maintain, protect and restore health. The Heritage Assessment tool A heritage assessment tool is a set of 29 questions that address a person’s heritage. It looks at family connections, use of original language, religion, attendance of cultural functions and dietary habits and how closely an individual follows these practices from their cultural roots. Within this paper the author will examine the results of three families from India, Holland and Korea who took the assessment. It will look at how the heritage assessment ties in to help evaluate how closely an individual may follow common health traditions and practices such as health protection, maintenance and restoration from...
Words: 1908 - Pages: 8
...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 practices, thereby strengthening the ability to provide Cultural Care. Cultural Care is a concept describing professional nursing care that is culturally sensitive, appropriate, and competent (Spector, 2004). Utilizing this assessment tool creates a way of determining an individual’s degree of identification with a given heritage. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of applying a heritage assessment tool in order to evaluate the health needs of families. In order to do so, three Central California families were interviewed from different cultural backgrounds: Hispanic, African-American, and Polish. Each family interview will be summarized with an evaluation of how each subscribes to health traditions, and how each addresses...
Words: 1693 - Pages: 7
...help guide us in providing care that is individualized and respectful while at the same time providing evidence based care that is safe for our patients. To provide culturally competent care to patients nurses must be aware of their own culture before they can be aware of others cultures, each culture views health, wellness, illness and healthcare workers in a different light (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014, Chapter 2). One assessment tool that can be useful for a nurse to gain an understanding of a patient’s culture or heritage is the Heritage Assessment Tool (Spector, 2000), an assessment was completed on 3 families from different cultures. Each family’s culture views health maintenance, health protection and health restoration in a different way. The first family that the assessment was completed for was a family that is from Mexico and all the family is from Mexico, some have moved to America while there are others that have stayed in Mexico. Mexican culture is strongly influenced by family and religion, for health maintenance, protection and restoration they rely on practices of the old ways that are performed by curanderos, spiritualists, yerbero’s and sabador’s in conjunction with traditional medicine practices(Edelman et al., 2014, Chapter 2). Hispanics believe that a person’s health is based on balance of hot and cold and when one gets sick it is because there is too much heat or cold present ("Mexican Cultural Profile," 2014). As indicated by my assessment of this...
Words: 1014 - Pages: 5
...Heritage Assessment Family centered health promotion Heritage Assessment Culture is a powerful human belief and behavior. Culture involves multiple influences including race, ethnicity, nationality, language and gender and also sociocultural factors, patient’s health belief and behavior. All culture has its own beliefs and values. Most of the people does not know much about own culture until they interact with another culture. In this world there are many different cultures. Having a sound understanding of own culture will guide you to learn about different cultural perceptions on health and illness. Cultural differences affect an individual’s attitudes about health care and ability to understand, manage and deal with illness, diagnosis and treatment. Cultural competence in health care system is to provide care to individual, families and community with diverse values, beliefs and behavior to provide quality care to every individual, not by looking of an individual’s race, ethnicity, cultural background or language. Failure to understand sociocultural factors may cause health issues in different cultural group. Health care personnel should have a sound understanding about a patient values, behaviors and perceptions about health and wellbeing to provide quality care to patients. (INGRAM, 2012) Cultural heritage assessment involves social, economic and health promotion of an individual. The heritage assessment tool help the health care professional to understand the patient’s...
Words: 1708 - Pages: 7
...Heritage Assessment of Three Culturally Diverse Families Suzannah Turner NRS-429V Family-Centered Health Promotion 31 January 2016 Heritage Assessment of Three Culturally Diverse Families Being culturally competent and delivering culturally sensitive care is imperative for anyone in the medical profession. It is important because of the many diversities faced every day in the health care field. However, simply understanding the fact that there are so many health disparities is not enough. In order to reach out and effectively care for patients of different backgrounds and cultures one must understand the importance of cultural competency. In order to be culturally competent, a nurse must have knowledge of the different cultures, and have proper attitudes and skills that support patients of different cultures and backgrounds. Being culturally competent allows the nurse to plan the care around the patient’s different belief system and culture. Perhaps one of the most appropriate tools for aiding in cultural competency is the Heritage Assessment tool (HAT). The HAT assesses different ethnicities, religions, and cultural heritages including health traditions of individuals. The HAT promotes self-growth of the nurse and helps guide nurses in caring for the patient in a holistic manner. The HAT consists of 29 questions with different sections designed to assess different demographic backgrounds and certain personal health beliefs and practices. Completing an HAT helps the...
Words: 1885 - Pages: 8
...Heritage Assessment M. J. F. Grand Canyon University March 5, 2015 NRS 429 Relative to health, cultural values form human behaviors and determine what people will do to preserve their health status, how they will care for themselves and others who get sick, and from whom and where they will find health care. While the diversity of the American people is one of our best assets in this country, it is also creating one of our greatest challenges; to provide health equity, which means to provide the highest level of health for all people (Edelman, 2013). One step in accomplishing this is for nurses to have awareness and culturally competent practices in order to function successfully in this rapidly changing multicultural society. Learning about a patient’s heritage allows the nurse to create a patient centered plan of care that meets their cultural needs which will produce the best outcome. This document contains information gathered from families of Hispanic, Indian (from India) and Black (from Turks & Caicos Islands) descent. They were given the Heritage Assessment tool (Spector, 2000) to complete which helps determine how much a person identifies with a traditional heritage. Knowing how much they identify with a culture can give you insight into understanding their health values and behaviors. In addition, they were also asked questions about their health traditions, how they promote, maintain, and restore their health. The purpose of health protection and...
Words: 1143 - Pages: 5
...Multicultural Assessment Norma Garcia Grand Canyon University Family Centered Health Promotion NRS-429V Serina Madden February 25, 2015 Multicultural Assessment The author of this paper is a student at Grand Canyon University who is currently taking Family Centered Health Promotion. The topic discussed in class this week was, Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion. The corresponding assignment to this course was to perform a heritage assessment; three families of the community were interviewed. The Heritage Assessment tool consist of 29 questions about families background, religious and ethnicity practices and current living status. The Interviews where performed via telephone calls. Veronica Navarro is a Hispanic female who migrated to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 12. Her parents and grandparents are Mexicans. She grew up with her six siblings and extended family living with her as a child. She was raised as Catholic and as an adult became a Christian. Veronica is married to a Hispanic male; they practice Christianity at home by praying, and celebrating religious holidays. They also participate in ethnic activities such as dancing, singing, Holiday celebrations and festivals. Veronica and her family currently live in a multicultural neighborhood. Veronicas native language is Spanish; she speaks both English and Spanish equally (V. Navarro, personal communication, February 20, 2015). Sarah Redmond is a single White female raised and...
Words: 1232 - Pages: 5
...Heritage Assessment A. Holm, RN Grand Canyon University: 429 V 08/24/2014 Heritage Assessment It is very important to address the heritage of every patient we become the caregiver for. This will ensure that we provide care that is culturally competent and gain the trust and respect of the patient and family. Since respect and trust are not given, but earned, addressing the fear everyone has upon having to depend on medical/nursing care for themselves or their family will put the patient at ease. Discussing and asking questions regarding heritage, religious preference, culture, race, gender, health promotion, health protection and health restoration shows respect for the whole person. This respect of the individual and their family will allow them to be participants in their own care without raising barriers because they will find out that we are trying to do what is best for their health. This will also allow us to complete a Care Plan that is specific and true to the individual and their needs. Introduction to Three Families Interviews were done with three families of differing culture, religion and race utilizing the Heritage Assessment Tool provided in the Week Three Assignment Guide. There were many laughs (such as all three couples stated, “condoms” when asked about health protection) during the interview as well as seriousness when speaking about deeply held beliefs and religious issues. All three families seemed to sincerely want to help with the understanding...
Words: 1535 - Pages: 7
...Health traditions between cultures vary according to the heritage a family is part of. The Heritage Assessment Tool helps evaluate the family whom is interviewed in order to develop a plan for health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. Each culture offers a different set of traditions and beliefs that contribute to the health care practices they participate in and how the traditions of that heritage are incorporated into the health practices present in the United States. The three families that were interviewed using the Heritage Assessment Tool were families from Native American Indian ancestry, Mexican ancestry, and Portuguese ancestry. All three families were born and raised in the United States, but their ancestors were from other countries, except the Native American family. Although these families were born and raised in the United States, they still carried on some of the traditions from their ancestors. There are many similarities within the three cultures above. All three cultures are family oriented, family is considered to be very important and family gatherings to celebrate holidays and rituals are huge gatherings that involve all the relatives old and young. It is common for these cultures to have large families; it is not unusual to have more than just the immediate family living in the home. In Mexican, Portuguese, and American Indian households, other family members also live in the same household. All three cultures also have many differences...
Words: 2293 - Pages: 10
...Benchmark Assignment – Heritage Assessment Grand Canyon University – NRS 429 Benchmark Assignment – Heritage Assessment Our ever-growing multicultural and ethnically diverse United States population makes it challenging for health care professionals to provide culturally competent and effective holistic care to these groups. It is imperative that health education strategies include performing a heritage assessment to include a person’s ethnic background, cultural heritage, health traditions and beliefs, cultural considerations affecting health, as well as traditional methods used for maintaining, protecting and restoring health (Spector, n.d.). It is of upmost importance for the health care provider to be knowledgeable of their own cultural beliefs and values in order to provide respectful, appropriate and culturally sensitive care to these diverse populations. Likewise, being culturally competent and possessing a complete understanding of the diverse minorities and ethnic groups is imperative in order to provide optimal health care to include ongoing maintenance, protection and restoration of health (Edelman, 2014). To analyze this theory three families of different ethnic backgrounds were interviewed using a heritage assessment tool which included additional health related questions. After completing these assessments the author believes that it is important to incorporate knowledge of a cultural heritage assessment into their practice and that this exercise...
Words: 1703 - Pages: 7
