...Chapter 2. Overview of Mexican Culture This chapter provides an overview of Mexican culture in terms of social structure, family, gender, religion, language, literacy, communication styles, socioeconomic position, traditional health beliefs and practices, and health care-seeking behaviors. Readers are cautioned to avoid stereotyping Mexicans on the basis of these broad generalizations. Also note that Mexican culture, as all others, is dynamic and expressed in various ways, owing to individual life experience and personality. Some Mexicans living in the United States may be more or less acculturated to mainstream U.S. culture. Social Structure, Family, and Gender Typically, Mexican households in the United States consist of five or more people (Therrien & Ramirez, 2001). The traditional patriarchal structure grants the father or oldest male relative the greatest power, whereas women are expected to show submission (Kemp & Rasbridge, 2004). Though a matriarch often determines when a family member needs medical care, the male head still gives permission to seek treatment (Smith, 2000). The entire family, however, may be involved in the decision-making process (Galanti, 2004). Religion Christianity is the most common religion. Most Mexicans (89%) identify themselves as Catholic, while a smaller percentage (6%) identify themselves as Protestant (U.S. Department of State, 2004). Faith and church are often central to family and community...
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... United States, the nurses in America need to Know the importance of culture and heritage importance in health care. .People from different parts of world carry different cultures . Each culture overview health in different ways. Understanding the culture make it easy to provide quality health care to individuals and families. Every culture have their own health belief to that what causes sickness and who should be involved in curing and what sort of remedy to be taken to cure the disease . The more the understanding of the culture of a patient the better the care the patient receives.”The Heritage Assessment Tool” is designed to find a patients cultural, religious, family and ethnic back ground. The norms and practices in each culture is varied. The “Heritage Assessment Tool” gives nurse a picture of the patients understanding regarding the health beliefs ,illness ,health and health promotion. This helps for the plan of developing a culturally appropriate health care. In this paper the goal of the author is to summarize the results of the assessments done on three different families of different cultures and utilize the results to plan the health promotion based on different cultures. The family support and family values are strong support for patient health...
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...needs of patients (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, 2002). As a consequence, care providers need cultural assessment tools that will enable them to elicit sensitive racial and ethnic information. The Heritage Assessment Tool provides care givers with such a tool. This paper examines the application of this tool on three different cultures and discusses its usefulness in planning for the maintenance, protection, and restoration of the health of diverse cultures. Three families of Mexican American, European American, and African American heritages were assessed using the Heritage Assessment Tool. The tool consists of 29 questions that determine how deeply an individual identifies with a certain tradition and answers to the questions provide cues on patients’ health traditions. The tool is based on the understanding that all patients are unique cultural beings, with personal health traditions and affected by cultural phenomena (Spector, 2013). The tool reveals an individual’s traditional health and illness beliefs and practices, and is important in deciding the suitable community care resources (p. 376-378). After performing a heritage assessment on the Mexican American, European American, and African American families, common health traditions based on cultural were...
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...Heritage Assessment Culture is a pattern of behavior and values shared by an ethnic group. Cultural heritage is a set of traditions within the culture that is hand down from the older generation to the younger generation within the family. These traditions influence the family’s decisions in relation to their diet, education, daily living activities, religious beliefs and practices and also health and illness beliefs. In this paper, the author will focus on the usefulness of applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of a person as a whole. Three different cultures including authors will be discussed about the health maintenance, health promotion, and health restoration. The author will also evaluate health traditions which are based on her own other two families. The evaluation of different culture will reveal similarities and differences in traditions, which can help nurses to provide holistic approach towards care delivery to gain optimal health outcomes. Heritage assessment tool is a very good way in finding out patients’ cultural values and beliefs towards health maintenance, protection, and restoration for a nurse to take a holistic approach towards providing care and education to the patient. In summarizing what the author has learned from the Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) is that, the author and her husband both were born in a Muslim country and lived there for the best part of their childhood. Her husband migrated to US when he was fifteen and the author...
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...cultural values should be consider. Individuals here in United States came from different cultures, however they still sustained their deep culture, believes and tradition. To deliver high quality health care services to a wide diverse population, it is important to be culturally competent. In the United States where a big part of the population are immigrants coming from all over the world (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). This is where the Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) becomes very appropriate. Heritage assessment is the most useful tool in the health care. It can provide better understanding of our patient’s culture. It help assessing one’s religious, ethnic and cultural heritage along with health traditions. With adequate knowledge, the health care provider will know how best to balance medical practice with the traditions patients holds (Spector, 2009).This will ensure that there is a balance and understanding between traditional and modern culture. Health care providers should respect the traditions and values of their patient and make sure to consider patient preferences and their needs. PAKISTANI HEALTH CULTURE: The writer is Asian American Pakistani by descent belongs to an extended family with 7 members. In writer’s culture, Parents are the most important decision makers in every aspects of life including health. Like many other cultures, Pakistani has their own culture, values, tradition and beliefs. These cultural practices affect their lifestyle and health...
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...Model, to understand the use of alternative medicine in the United States. The author examines the need for social workers and other health care providers to further assess the roles of folk medicine in an Appalachian client population. The author creates linkages among the limited writings in the literature regarding folk medical practices of Appalachians and also draws examples of folk medicine usage from qualitative research and professional intervention with this client group. The author focuses on how mainstream health care professionals may assess the role of folk medicine in the lives of their clients by approaching folk medicine as a focal and culturally-imbedded component of their clients' overall health care. Moreover, the author addresses the need for health care professionals to become not only aware of folk medical practices, but to act as advocates for culturally competent health care within the larger health care delivery system which largely overlooks or downplays the significance of folk medicine. In an age of expensive and constricted mainstream health care services and the implementation of managed care, the author examines how folk medical practices factor into primary health care. PMID: 9418440 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] This article presents an approach to the evaluation of patient-held beliefs and behaviors that may not be concordant with those of biomedicine. Physicians and patients often hold discrepant models of health and illness that may affect...
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...Although all people die, everyone's dying process is unique. Many people think of dying as merely a physical process, but dying is an experience of the whole person and is influenced by a combination of physical, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual factors. There are as many ways to die as there are to live, so in order to better understand how people who are dying experience the process, researchers and clinicians have developed different models or theories that attempt to account for how people cope with dying. THEORIES/MODELS OF DYING Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's Stage Theory of Dying The general public is most likely to be familiar with Kubler-Ross's theory of dying. In 1969, she published a book titled On Death and Dying, which was based on interviews collected from 200 dying patients. In the book, Kubler-Ross discerned five stages that dying people experience. The five stages, which reflect different reactions to dying, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Denial is the "No, not me!" stage where the person is in shock or denial and cannot believe that they are going to die. Denial is self-protective and gives the person time to adjust psychologically to the news that he or she is going to die. Anger is the "Why me?" stage and may involve, in addition to anger, resentment, rage, and envy at God, doctors, nurses, family members, or anyone who is not dying. Bargaining is the "Yes me, but. . ." stage and often involves bargaining with God...
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...There are many different amazing cultures in this world and many of them live within just a couple miles from my home. Islamic, African American, Hispanic, and Indian all live right here in West Virginia. Each culture is different in so many ways and it is very important to be able to distinguish the differences between them, especially when it comes to healthcare. A person’s culture can affect their healthcare in so many ways. Some cultures prefer no treatment for illnesses and others prefer not to have a male nurse taking care of their wife and vis versa. Every culture is unique and as a healthcare provider, it is very important to know. Literature Review Nurses are taught to respect different cultures when it comes to care and support the patient with their decisions. A nurse is who listens to the patient’s needs when it comes to physical, emotional, religious, or spiritual needs. Each person is unique with their culture and it is important for the nurse to realize that and respect it. They are taught to look at the culture from the patient’s perspective and respect it in order to give culturally competent care. Diversity has many definitions, although most are put into categories such as gender, physical, environmental, spiritual, and culture,...
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...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...
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...Dimensions of Latino Experience In the United States there are foreign and domestic born Latino groups. The Latino population is growing at a high rate in the United States. There are eight different Latino groups, which are Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, Ecuadorian Salvadoran Peruvian and Guatemalan. In regards to the literature review on Latino experience I have gathered in the semester is that. Puerto Ricans historically have been the 2nd largest Latino population in the New York City. I know from personal knowledge that the Cubans that are domestic born are the richest among all the Hispanic groups right now in 2015. Cuban’s Latino group is at the top in regards to socio economic and educational attainment. In Latino studies and survey’s focuses on comparing socio economic conditions and cultural conditions and problems found within in each primary Latino group. Latino group on the whole still control a small portion of wealth in New York City compared to non Hispanic White, Black, and Asian city residents. The socio economic lower income levels among Latinos maybe at least partially because of lower education attainment compared with Asian, Black and non Hispanic whites. Approximately two thirds of New York City Latinos over the age of 25 reported having no college education, which is higher than Asian, Black and non Hispanic. Puerto Ricans are also the only national group in the Latino population where the majority of respondents were born in the United...
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...Marijuana in America COM 220 Marijuana is a drug that has played a significant role in American history and culture. The drug has been used in several forms, from practical uses to recreational uses. Marijuana also once defined a generation of American people. As of today, marijuana is illegal for recreational use, with some states allowing the drug to be used for medicinal purposes only. The debate has begun in federal and state governments for decriminalizing the recreational use of marijuana, which has brought about questioning the effects that the drug has on people. Is marijuana a gateway drug that leads people to use harder, more dangerous drugs or is this theory a scare tactic to persuade people to keep from using the plant? Marijuana began its history in the United States as a plant that was grown to produce rope, clothing and sails for boats as early as the 17th century. The plant, known as hemp, was first brought to America by the Puritans, a group of people from England that immigrated to the United States to escape religious prosecution. As the people began to create communities, leaders encouraged farmers to grow hemp. In 1619, the Virginia Assembly approved legislation that “required every farmer to grow the hemp seed because the plant’s large role in producing material” (Booth, 2003, p. 173). The plant was also used as legal tender in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to pay property taxes. By the 18th century, marijuana...
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...In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of states legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. The prohibition of marijuana has been the source of countless debates with people on opposite sides of the spectrum defending their beliefs. The history of marijuana prohibition, the consequences resulting from the prohibition, money spent on enforcing prohibition and potential profits, medical marijuana, dangerous manufactured substances, confusion between the state and federal governments, the ineffectiveness of current laws, and marijuana’s affect on state and local politics have all contributed to large debates across the states as legislatures decide the right way to regulate marijuana. The prohibition of alcohol and the restriction of cannabis use have certain similarities. Both were directed against the evils of using these substances, the negative rhetoric against both substances was the same, and both started at the state level with congressional action following later. During the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, the government spent millions of dollars trying to enforce an ineffective law it had in place.2 The same can be said about marijuana, but one a much larger, more devastating scale. The “evils” of alcohol were matters of public knowledge, with countless debates leading to the Eighteenth Amendment and later the Volstead Act. It was the direct opposite regarding marijuana. There were no public opinion polls before legislation...
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...Culture Attitude towards Abortion Shekemia Figueroa November 6, 2009 Developmental Psychology PSYC 331 Fall Semester 2009 Attitudes toward Abortion in different cultures Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in today society. Abortion is the termination of unwanted pregnancy by destruction of the fetus. It is one of the oldest methods of fertility control and one of the most widely used. It has been and is practiced in all regions of the world. In preliterate societies a woman whose pregnancy is unacceptable to the community, a woman who has broken its rule about appropriate sexual partners or the number of children, a pregnant widow, an unmarried girl or a girl too young, a woman who has had sexual intercourse with outsider or whose pregnancy is the result of an adulterous relationship is expected to have an abortion (Simon, 1). Abortion rights advocates argue that since the fetus develops inside of the woman’s body and since the outcome of the pregnancy will profoundly affect the woman’s life; abortion must remain a woman’s choice in some cultures (Cozic p. 52). In other cultures they believe that abortion should not be a woman’s personnel choice. People have different opinions on whether or not a fetus is consider a human being. Some culture attitudes toward abortion are different than others and they expect the decision to be made by their views on abortion. In 1992 the overall (national) abortion rate was 26 per 1,000 women ( Francome, p. 22). African...
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...Marijuana Legalization: The War on Drugs and Criminal Law Howard R. Burke Strayer University Abstract This research will point out that the United States’ current policy on drug prohibition, the so called “War on Drugs,” is ineffective. The current draconian prohibition policies against drug consumption may actually increase their use. As well, contrary to claims made by current drug policy supporters, increased drug enforcement can reduce public safety and compound the individual and social costs of drug use. The U.S. drug policy, born over a hundred years ago, has gone through several transformations becoming more voracious with each new invocation. The War on Drugs is an expensive and failed concept which has incorporated racism in its administration, increased crime rates, imposed harsh sentences for nonviolent offenses, facilitated police corruption and aggressively eroded civil liberties. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Problem Background of the Study Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Research Research Questions Significance of the Research Assumptions and Limitations Organization of the Remainder of the Study LITERATURE REVIEW CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Marijuana Legalization: The War on Drugs and Criminal Law INTRODUCTION The United States has conducted a long experiment of drug prohibition. The prohibition of marijuana and other illicit drugs has only...
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...or Alaska Native, Asian American, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].) The narrative of this paper will take a closer look at the health of Hispanics or Latino population. The topics addressed will be the health status of Hispanics or Latino, Barriers to health and influencing factors, disparities that exits, and a health promotion approach. The Hispanic or Latino group is by “The OMB definition of Hispanic or Latino origin refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” (Edelman, 2014). Hispanic/Latino make up for being one of the largest ethnic minority and quickly growing in the US. Poverty and lack of education or some crucial factors that affect the ability to provide health promotion within this culture. In 2009 the poverty rate for Hispanics increased to 25.3%, from 2008 which was at 23.2%, (Edelman, 2014). Poverty can cause poor health. Poverty can result in depression, high stress which can affect a person’s long term health. Lack of money decrease a diet of nutrition and healthy food choices. The percentage of Hispanics without health insurance in 2012 is at 29.1% in comparison to white non-Hispanic who have a 12.7% no health insurance, (CDC). The lack of health insurance can contribute to the higher prevalence of chronic conditions found within this ethnic...
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