...in the economic, social and health promotion of an individual. The use of heritage assessment tools helps people to evaluate someone’s heritage, as well as traditional health methods used to maintain health, protect health, and restore health; Heritage assessment tool is very useful for the health care professionals when they are dealing with a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual beliefs. Every person has a cultural heritage and their views are different too. Different cultures have different values and beliefs of health, disease and treatment. By knowing these cultural competencies we can provide a holistic approach care to their health. This tool helps both the patient and the health care provider by opening a pathway for an effective communication of one’s own values and beliefs, in regards to health and illness. Culture is an inherited quality and it includes beliefs, knowledge and custom. The basic role of cultural heritage is bringing people together and respects the cultural diversities. The tool helps to understand heritage assessment of a person according to how deeply he answered the question. Interview of Three Different Families Knowledge about traditional culture makes people aware about their health maintenance, protection and restoration of the health. The main purpose of this study is to compare the differences of Indian, Hispanic and Kenyan heritage and health tradition. While comparing the differences in health tradition between three families, we can...
Words: 1260 - Pages: 6
...ASSESSMENT TOOL: EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT Heritage Assessment Tool: Evaluation of Different Cultures and Individual Views of Health Micaela Simon Grand Canyon University Family-Centered Health Promotion 429V Melanie Escobar RN MSN August 31, 2012 Heritage Assessment Tool: Evaluation of different Cultures and Individual Views of Health The Heritage Assessment Tool can be used as as a reliable tool to assess, health maintenance, protection and restoration of individual cultural beliefs. This evaluation helps meet the needs of different patient populations to provide quality holistic care. The purpose of this paper is to explore the Hispanic, Native American, Chinese, and the author’s own personal cultural beliefs from perspectives of health traditions, maintenance, promotion and restoration of health. The objectives are to identify different families and the own common health traditions based of the cultural heritage. Evaluate and discuss how the families ascribe to traditions and practices. The evaluation of these different cultures reveal similarities and differences in traditions that may help provide holistic optimal health delivery. The definition of cultural awareness is an individual’s awareness of their understanding between themselves and other backgrounds, attitudes to health and specific cultural values (Cultural awareness, n.d). Cultural competence refers to knowledge and skills that must be obtained to care for culturally different backgrounds (Spector,...
Words: 1319 - Pages: 6
...heritage assessment is a subpart to the overall nursing assessment. Assessing a patient’s heritage allows the nurse to obtain more information about a patient’s culture, including beliefs about health and values, this is important to providing cultural health care. One’s heritage includes information about their cultural beliefs and practices of the family and ethno religious community (Jarvis, C., 2012). Through a heritage assessment the nurse can obtain a vast amount of information about the patient/ family, including but not limited to, where ancestors were born, how many siblings they have, if the family originated in another country, how often time is spent with family, religion, if the patient prefers the company of people with the same values and religion or ethnic background, what type of foods the patient prepares, and the patient’s native language. This paper will discuss what the author learned from completing a heritage assessment tool, the usefulness of a heritage assessment tool when assessing a patient/ family/ community as a whole. This paper will also compare the health traditions of three different families (and cultures) to include, health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration, while identifying common traditions based on the author’s heritage. What the families ascribe their traditions to will also be discussed. To begin, what was learned from the heritage assessment tool and why it is useful to apply a heritage assessment in evaluating the...
Words: 1392 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 1203 - Pages: 5
...The Influence of Heritage on Current Culture Evaluation of how family subscribes to these traditions and practices is offered in detail, while offering insight and/or reflection.It is essential for nurses to provide culturally sensitive care to each and every patient in order to establish repor and maintain a safe working relationship with each individual. To provide culturally sensitive care to a nurses patient’s he or she must first assess their own beliefs, values, and culture at large. The nurse can do this by using the Heritage Assessment Tool. This tool shows the nurse how important their heritage is to them and if they have adopted their ways of life from their family’s history and influence. This gives the nurse a starting point for his or her own competency because once the nurse knows their own beliefs they will know what to keep in mind as their own biases that may hinder or limit care of their patients. The Heritage Assessment tool can then be used with the nurses’ patients in assessing how much they follow their cultural heritage. When interviewing families from different cultures one can see the disparities between them and their perception of their health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. Applying the Heritage Assessment in Evaluating the Needs of the Whole Person The Heritage Assessment is a useful tool in evaluating the needs of the patient and in being able to provide holistic patient care. The Heritage Assessment Tool assesses whether...
Words: 1627 - Pages: 7
... HERITAGE ASSESSMENT TOOL Heritage refers to practices, beliefs and traditions that are passed down through the years, from one generation to the next. In the United States, one finds people from all over the world. This diversity results in different cultures and traditions. As health care providers, one has to be aware of and be sensitive of a person’s traditions, values, and beliefs as these influence the patient’s behavior and attitudes towards healthcare practices. “A cultural competent health system must incorporate the importance of cultural assessment and provide nurses with tools that will help them with their planning care and treating patients from different cultures” p.16 (Green & Reinckens, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment Tool to evaluate the needs of a person as a whole; identify and evaluate common health practices based on cultural beliefs and values of three different families from Mexico, Philippines and China and how they subscribe to these traditions and practices to address their familys’ health maintenance, health protection and health recovery. The writer will include her culture as well. Efficacy of Heritage Assessment Tool The Heritage Assessment Tool is useful to evaluate the cultural needs and health traditions of a person. The assessment consists on a set of questions that explores a person’s ethnicity, traditions, language, religion, food, and family values. By applying the Heritage...
Words: 1442 - Pages: 6
...in society there are many diverse culture and ethnic backgrounds, each with their own habits, traditions, preferences, and of these includes health. Different needs of the whole person should be evaluated in detail. This paper will discuss results from three different cultures through the interviewing of them using the Heritage Assessment Tool. It will also review, compare, and address health traditions between the cultures as well as identify common health traditions based on cultural heritage. The purpose is to evaluate and discuss how families subscribe to these traditions/practices, address health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration according to the assessment. Why Heritage Assessment? One method for determining an individuals or groups needs is to use some type of tool in order to complete the assessment. Over 20 years ago an assessment tool was used in order to promote public health and awareness ("Heritage Assessment Tool | Researchomatic," n.d.). The name later became known as “Healthy People 2000 and 2010” and 2020 is soon to come ("Heritage Assessment Tool | Researchomatic," n.d.). The tool contains twenty-nine different and varying questions to obtain detail of birth, siblings, immigration, religion, school, ethnic activities/cuisine and other topics. The usefulness of applying a heritage assessment is because it enables the research to identify how “Different people have different beliefs regarding health, sickness, infection, virus, birth...
Words: 1199 - Pages: 5
...Cultural Competence Culture and Cultural Competency in Health Promotion Valsamma Xavi Grand Canyon University: NRS 429V Family and Health Promotion 09-13-2014 In today’s society, nurses interact and care for many individuals from various cultures. Nurses are responsible for understanding and valuing culture and upholding the rights and dignity of each individual. Cultural competence can be defined as “the level of knowledge-based skills required to provide effective clinical care to patients from a particular ethnic or racial group” (Bureau of Health Professions, 2004). Cultural competence requires the nurse to distinguish their own beliefs, in addition to those of the patients and to learn to be sensitive to patient’s cultural needs. Using the heritage assessment tool and interviewing individuals from three different cultural backgrounds we can see how cultural competence can help in health promotion. I was born and raised in India, and lived there for over half my life and then I migrated to the United States. Although we have lived here for over twenty years, many of the traditions which we practiced in India are still practiced within our family today. When I grew up in India, I remember having friends from various religions and different ethnic groups. I remember waking up to the smell of my mother’s tea and the sound of the animals in our farm. My family is a strong Roman Catholic family, and we all prayed together to God to keep us in good health. To this day, my...
Words: 1171 - Pages: 5
...Understanding the differences and similarities of cultures can be a challenging task for many. Nurses interact directly or indirectly with individuals and families of different backgrounds daily. The biggest concern for many health professionals is to provide the best care to their patients in order to achieve or progress towards health. With this goal nurses have to understand that caring for patients have to be individualized as cultures have differences, even those who have the same culture can adhere to traditions differently. This can be very challenging for many Healthcare providers especially in the United States of America as this country was developed on many immigrants working together as one. The most important key as a nurse is having the skills and understanding to approach and provide care individually based on the beliefs and values of their patient, this will aid to meet the patient wishes. With the help of the Heritage Assessment Tool we are able to get a more detailed look at how closely certain individual or families adhere to their traditional values. [[NEEDS A THESIS STATEMENT HERE: “In this essay, the author will…”]] Heritage Assessment Tool The Heritage Assessment Tool is a questionnaire made up of 29 questions which helps when assessing an individual’s heritage practices. The questionnaire assesses different areas such as family origin, religious beliefs, ethnicity, language, family relationship and health practice. For this paper the Heritage Assessment...
Words: 1532 - Pages: 7
...Cultural differences abound in America today. Approaches to health also differ from one culture to another. People are shaped by their traditions and use traditional ways to satisfy their needs for better health (Agec, 2012). America is a melting pot of different cultures. This cultural diversity comes with differences in health traditions and health decisions. It could be a religious approach to health or a cultural tradition. Health has a different meaning for different people. So, everyone has a different approach to his or her health ( Alpa, 2007). Cultural heritage is an important of one’s economic, social and health issues. It helps one understand someone else’s health heritage, as well as traditional health methods that are used to maintain, protect, and restore health. Applying these concepts makes it easier to deal with a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual beliefs. Different cultures have different values and beliefs of health, disease, illness, birth, and death. It is essential to open a pathway for the effective communication of others values and beliefs, in regards to health, illness, family support as well as spiritual values ( Agec, 2012). Health concerns though practiced in all traditions, varies among different cultures. To become aware of another’s culture and health traditions can enable one to better understand and respect another’s cultural traditions, health concerns and issues. ...
Words: 1159 - Pages: 5
...depending on how deeply the person identify and answers the questions and is helpful in setting the stage for understanding the health traditions of the person” (I don’t know where you got this quote from you didn’t cite it). This is essential in the treatment of a client because cultural traditions can greatly affect how and what a person think is healthy and “culture may have an impact on people’s…wellness belief systems, perceived cause of illness and disease…influence on the delivery of health care services by the providers. When an individual has been immersed in a particular culture and has been taught varying things in regards to hygiene and health, it can become difficult for health care providers to apply the proper treatment if the patient and their family are unfamiliar with it or rejects it due to traditions, culture, and/or religion. Three families from different cultural backgrounds have been interviewed for in relation to the heritage assessment tool. For maintaining health, for example, the Chinese has always believed in dressing appropriately for the weather, in particular in the winter the feet must be warm because there is a saying that illness starts from the feet up. And in the summer, no matter how hot it is, always cover the stomach when sleeping because the cold air from the A/C can cause stomach pain and diarrhea. To regulate good health, the Chinese also open their windows every morning to let fresh air in and the stale air out, along with changing shoes...
Words: 1271 - Pages: 6
...Culture: How It Is Related to Health Grand Canyon University Family Centered Health Promotion NRS-429V Shauna Wise September 7, 2014 Culture: How It Is Related to Health As nurses we encounter people every day from a variety of cultures, in healthcare our understanding of each patient’s cultural values will 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...
Words: 1014 - Pages: 5
...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 health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration...
Words: 1693 - Pages: 7
...Health Traditions and Cultural Heritage No wonder modern technology innovations keep coming out each year. Even with all the new changes and the fast lifestyles. Few things are resolute such as customs and traditions. Each country has a wealth of culture and heritage passed on from their ancestors. Many people believe and value the inheritance; ensure to transfer the tradition to the upcoming generations. The distinguishing civilization, inheritance, and traditions are unique for each nation. The heritage assessment tool helps to differentiate various traditions and heritage of different cultures. Being an Indian my traditional beliefs, customs, and practices pertaining to health are diverse and is specific to each region. Indians are well-known for their endurance and the way they entertain guests unbiased by his/her race, religious beliefs or economic status. People in India especially elderly believe that health and wealth are very much related to mind, body, and soul. Though people seek medical help for aches and other illness of unknown origin, individuals are ashamed to report mental health issues to the medical practitioner and sometimes wait until decisive moments to get assistance from health care personnel (Shapiro, n d). Apart from the western medicine India has a wealth of traditional system of medicine including Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Acupuncture and Acupressure. Ayurveda also known as “the science of life” deals with multiple...
Words: 1060 - Pages: 5
...Health Traditions and Cultural Heritage No wonder modern technology innovations keep coming out each year. Even with all the new changes and the fast lifestyles. Few things are resolute such as customs and traditions. Each country has a wealth of culture and heritage passed on from their ancestors. Many people believe and value the inheritance; ensure to transfer the tradition to the upcoming generations. The distinguishing civilization, inheritance, and traditions are unique for each nation. The heritage assessment tool helps to differentiate various traditions and heritage of different cultures. Being an Indian my traditional beliefs, customs, and practices pertaining to health are diverse and is specific to each region. Indians are well-known for their endurance and the way they entertain guests unbiased by his/her race, religious beliefs or economic status. People in India especially elderly believe that health and wealth are very much related to mind, body, and soul. Though people seek medical help for aches and other illness of unknown origin, individuals are ashamed to report mental health issues to the medical practitioner and sometimes wait until decisive moments to get assistance from health care personnel (Shapiro, n d). Apart from the western medicine India has a wealth of traditional system of medicine including Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Acupuncture and Acupressure. Ayurveda also known as “the science of life” deals with multiple...
Words: 1244 - Pages: 5
