Assessing Family Health Patterns: Evaluating the Usefulness of a Heritage Assessment

Assessing Family Health Patterns: Evaluating the Usefulness of a Heritage Assessment
NRS-429V-0191
Assessing Family Health Patterns: Evaluating the Usefulness of a Heritage Assessment Tool
In the United States today cultural diversity is growing more prevalent every day.

The report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM: Unequal treatment, 2002) presented information that racial and ethnic minorities of all ages receive lower quality health care compared to their non-minority counterparts.

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Every effort should be made to stop the disparities surrounding cultural differences while attempting to understand the cultural health behaviors, increase cultural competence cultural, and increase sensitivity to cultural difference associated with the decision making process and health care preferences.

Since cultural competence is a major foundation for nursing care, it is essential for health care providers to assess a patient’s identification with a particular race or ethnicity using a Heritage Assessment Tool.

The tool used by this author included 29 questions used to gage a patient and families ethnic, cultural and religious heritage to determine how much the person identifies with a particular culture and traditions, which acts as a predictor in understanding their health choices and behaviors. The greater number of positive responses, the greater the person’s identification with a traditional heritage.

This paper will discuss the various ways to apply findings based on a heritage assessment tool interview of an American, Hispanic and Hmong family and how the findings are both different and similar in the areas of health maintenance, health protection and health restoration. Health Maintenance

According to the Edelman, Kudzma and Mandle (2010) health maintenance is a systematic program, regimen or procedure planned to prevent illness, maintain maximum function and promotes health. It includes all health patterns: preventative, episodic, acute, chronic and catastrophic.

The Hispanic family interviewed stated that in order to maintain health they eat a balanced diet of eggs, beans, bread/tortillas; drink tea, ensure adequate sleep and attempt to remain in a balanced emotional state. According to Kemp (2005) the Hispanic culture views physical and mental illness as an imbalance between people, their environment, and humoral imbalance expressed as too much hot or cold.

Part of the assessment performed on the Hispanic family included the description of staying away from sickness by avoidance of feeling chilled or overheated; therefore, they modified activities based on the temperature of the environment or weather. Kemp (2005) further explains that health maintenance behaviors of Hispanics are traditionally a combination of home remedies, lay healers, herbals, folk medicine and modern medicine………………