Essay on "Heritage Assessment"

Essay 4 pages (1257 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

This information can be helpful because healthcare providers can find information in different languages to provide the patient and his or her family. Similarly, knowing the patient's preference for cooking foods from their heritage, the healthcare provider can work with a nutritionist to come up with menu plans that incorporate ingredients and dishes from the person's ethnic background.

One of the more interesting responses was related to how often the person sees his or her relatives. The person from India only sees their relatives once every few years due to the distance and costs involved. The one born in America sees their relatives once a week, and the person from the Philippines sees their relatives about once per month. The different answers can show healthcare providers how to address issues related to family, and what to expect in terms of family engagement with the healthcare program. Health maintenance factors involved with heritage assessments generally refer to the family, social and religious ties that provide strong support networks. However, health maintenance can also relate to the foods the person eats and the types of activities the person engages in to comprise an overall lifestyle factor.

The healthcare provider works within a framework that takes into account individual, family, and community needs. Within this framework, the heritage assessment becomes especially useful in clarifying needs that extend beyond the patient. Some families may expect more or less involvement with their relative's care, and may be persistent in wanting to be near the patient at all times. To promote quality of care delivery, choices related to health promotion and restoration must take into account evidence-based practice as well as sensitivity to cultural needs.

Health protection refers to the buffers, ameliorators, and mediators of health. Family, religion, and social events can provide the types of health protective services a patient needs to promote overall wellness. For religious patients like the ones surveyed, spiritual practices provide an ideal health proactive methodology that can be incorporated into daily life through prayer, and through the person's social life through engagement with the religious community. Finding meaning in suffering through religious texts can also become an important health protective measure, as can be seen in the ways all three of the persons interviewed read their bibles regularly.

Health restoration will progress differently for each person. The progress of health restoration will vary depending on the person's physical conditions, genetics, and intervening variables such as cormorbidity and lifestyle. The heritage assessement tool helps the nurse to activate core dimensions of health restoration related to family, community, and individual needs. The person may need to emphasize a treatment plan that relies heavily on pharmaceuticals and medical technology. If these elements of medical care make the patient uncomfortable, the nurse can talk to the patient about how to combine their heritage with the need for healing. Restoration of health may also be due to factors like psychological healing. Understanding the patient's background, the healthcare provider is in a better position to comprehend the patient's emotional needs and cognitive framework.

The Heritage Assessment Tool is brief enough to be offered to every patient during intake or during the course of treatment. It can be shared with all members of the health care team in order to provide optimized care for each individual. Cultural competency in this way promotes healing as a holistic process that involves family and community, without isolating the individual.

References

"Health Promotion, Health Protection, and Disease Prevention, (2014). Retrieved online: http://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/843.pdf

Heritage Assessment Tools (2014). [Patient Survey Interview].

National Institutes of Health (2014). Cultural competency. Retrieved online: http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/culturalcompetency.htm

Spector, R.E. (2000). Heritage assessment tool. Retrieved online: http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/663/679611/box_6_1.pdf READ MORE

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