...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
...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 The United States (US) is a multicultural society. People from all over the world reside in the US. There are many customs, religion, values, beliefs, and so forth, in the US. To be in the healthcare profession, it is vital and necessary to be culturally aware and competent to provide culturally appropriate, holistic care. One of the ways to learn about a person’s heritage is by using the Heritage Assessment (HA). The HA tool has 29 questions and is a reliable method used to collect data on the patients’ traditional heritage. This paper will discuss the usefulness of the Heritage Assessment (HA) tool, this student’s summary of personal learning, this student’s cultural heritage common health traditions, in addition to the differences in health traditions from three different cultures in relation to health maintenance, protection, and restoration. We have to understand our own cultural beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices that are relevant to health and illness before we can understand others (Jarvis, 2012). People have different views on health and illness which is influenced by their cultural beliefs. According to Jarvis (2012), to be culturally competent, one must have knowledge of one’s own personal heritage, the heritage of the patient, nursing profession, and health care system. The Heritage Assessment is a useful tool to build cultural competency by collecting relevant data to assist the healthcare providers to provide better care. The tool assists...
Words: 1477 - Pages: 6
...Heritage Assessment: Applying The Heritage Assessment Jake Freeman GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY: NRS - 429V 10/31/2011 Applying the heritage assessment can be useful with integration into the health care system. First impressions go along with the proper approach. If you look at it this way first impressions are important in every culture. With the plethora of cultures out there and each family shaped by these values and beliefs a good approach is always an informed one. With a little common courtesy, topped off with some minimal knowledge of ones heritage you can get started on a good foot with your patient. So many cultures are part of the United States culture that being informed is our responsibility as nurses. Incorporating a cultural competent nurse into the work force makes for an appropriate health care experience. This paper will discuss the heritage of 3 different families. Families A,B, and C and how these families practice health traditions. How their parents where brought up and how they’ve been influenced through old ways. This assessment is to create an understanding of how useful the heritage assessment is. It puts patient and practitioner on a level where both participants can feel comfortable with communication, and interaction in order to provide quality care. Family A is from Gilbert, AZ. The wife is from India. Her spouse is from Boston, MA. This family is very matriarchal and the wife’s ways of culture are strong standing...
Words: 1414 - 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
...Heritage Assessment Paper Grand Canyon University NRS-429V United States one of the most cultural diverse nation on earth, People from different part of world have come tougher to create this country. So as healthcare professionals nurses has to deal with patient from diverse cultural background. To provide quality care they should be able to understand the cultural heritage. Culture is that which shapes the person. Heritage is made of practices and tradition example like language, norms, behavior, belief, values that are passed from parent to children. This paper will discuss the importance of applying heritage assessment tool to assess health tradition of culturally diverse population. Based on heritage assessment tool this paper addresses the health maintance, health protection, and health restoration of culturally different families of Indian, Philippines and Pakistani, and evaluate and discuss how the families subscribe to these tradition and practices. The author include her own health tradition based on her cultural heritage. Heritage Assessment tool in Evaluating the Need of Whole Person Treating the person as a whole is extremely important in nursing practice. That means nurse assess the person as a whole. To understand fully the nurse should have the knowledge of their culture and heritage. Culture...
Words: 1304 - Pages: 6
...Running Head: Heritage Assessment Heritage Assessment Grand Canyon University NRS-429V January 22, 2011 Heritage Assessment Heritage is as individual as a fingerprint when it comes to some cultures. Every individual has their own heritage, and this is very different between different cultures. Heritage consists of determination of one’s ethnic, religious, and cultural background (Spector, 2009). When we look at someone’s heritage, we look at traditional health methods used to maintain health, protect health, and restore health; these concepts deal with a person’s physical, mental, and spiritual beliefs. This paper will compare these health methods among the Chinese, Hispanic, and Navajo heritages and look at the differences between the health traditions, as well as look at the author’s heritage. Health maintenance deals with what different cultures do in their everyday lives that help prevent illnesses. In the Chinese culture, the people believe that eggs are a necessity in their everyday diet, along with rice (B. Nguyen, personal communication, January 15, 2011). They also believe that food should be various flavors; such as, sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy. The people of the Navajo culture use activities like weaving and making rugs to help calm their souls (S. Notah, personal communication, January 16, 2011). Hobbies help contribute to their mental well-being (Spector, 2009). Both the Navajo and Hispanic cultures are very strong believers in their...
Words: 1213 - Pages: 5
...Heritage Assessment Tool Devona Myrick Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V Teaching and Learning Styles 10-11-2014 Heritage Assessment Tool Identified over 20 years ago in the USA the use of the heritage assessment proves to be useful in the supporting the national health along with the cure and prevention of a number of diseases (Edelmam & Mandle, 2010). It is reliable in helping the medical staff to talk with their patients and families about different health prevention, cultural practices and beliefs. The aim of this paper is to compare the American, American Indian and Ecuadorian health maintenance, health protection, and health restoration. Heritage Assessment and Culture The assessment of heritage is an important step in order to have understanding of one’s cultural status. A person’s traditions, beliefs, and everyday language play an important role in impacting on the patient as well as the health provider. Diversity in people brings about different beliefs regarding health, sickness, infection, virus, birth as well as death (Edelmam & Mandle, 2010). Heritage culture is the study of people’s cultural beliefs, religious practices, social, and physical lives. It defines the understanding and awareness of different ethnic groups of people, studying and evaluating their cultural background (Rogerio-Candelera, M. A., Lazzari,M., & ...
Words: 1064 - Pages: 5
...Heritage and Cultural Assessment Gathering information about a patient’s culture is an essential part of the nursing assessment. The importance of a comprehensive cultural assessment cannot be underestimated. Race, ethnicity, and cultural values influence a patient’s view of health and potential treatments. My first experiences with culture were relatively benign. I grew up in small-town Iowa where there was one African-American family and a smattering of families of Asian or Indian descent. The latter lived in town because their parent or parents were physicians at the local Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital. I lived in a vacuum with family living nearby, and all of my friends were Caucasian and Christian or Catholic. My maternal grandparents were born and raised in different states – my grandfather was from eastern Tennessee and my grandmother from Louisiana, near New Orleans. My maternal grandfather migrated to Louisiana to work as a longshoreman where he met my grandmother who was raised in a Catholic orphanage. My grandmother’s roots can be traced backwards from Cajun Louisiana to Acadia (Nova Scotia) to 16th century France. My grandmother did not believe in doctors; but relied on folk medicine treatments. Brunvand (1996), states that “in the Cajun culture of southwestern Louisiana, for example, the principle folk practitioners are called ‘traiteurs,’ a term commonly applied to three different types of people.” These people included magic-religious healers, those...
Words: 1244 - Pages: 5
...The heritage assessment tool, used alone, was not very useful in assessing health practices and needs. However, it was helpful in identifying similarities in generations. The tool asks very basic questions but it does not gain specific information about what people do, how they deal with sickness, how they live their lives, and whether or not they base their personal practices on their family history. If health providers are only using this tool to develop specific information about health practices, they will not find it useful without additional cultural information. It is very important for health care providers to be aware and knowledgeable of the various heritage practices and be able to work with these families to identify and address specific health concerns. Some of the information gained through a heritage assessment tool teaches us that some families pass along traditions through their familial line more than others. This only means that some families value traditional practices, while others may modify the traditional practices to make it unique to their own family. Creating a more detailed heritage assessment on families, in addition to using the tool, is very important to gain vital information about how different people maintain, promote, and improve their health. Todd McKee stated, “Efforts to eliminate health disparities arising from cultural differences should focus on building patient-clinician trust relationships, understanding the cultural contexts of health...
Words: 1487 - Pages: 6
...sense of uniqueness within the larger society, and a distinction from nonmembers. Ethnicity denotes a sharing of customs, food, dress, music, religion, and of symbols, such as language, among those who see themselves as fellow members of the group (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). An ethnic group may have “common geographic origins, family patterns, language, religion, values, traditions, symbols, music, dietary preferences, and employment patterns” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). The ethnic group includes those members with the sense of belonging to the collective identity. A traditional method of maintaining, protecting, and restoring health requires the knowledge and understanding of health related resources from within a given person’s cultural heritage and community. These methods may be used instead of or along with modern...
Words: 1637 - Pages: 7
...Heritage Assessment Tool Samantha Rich Grand Canyon University May 21, 2013 The Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) is a way to asses an individual’s ethnic, religious, and cultural heritage as well as health traditions. Using this tool allows healthcare providers to deliver high quality patient care as well as develop a therapeutic relationship and healing approach. Being able to deliver high quality care to patients and families is of utmost importance for nurses. In order to be most efficient in the delivery the nurse has to be culturally competent. Being culturally competent encompasses more than just asking where a patient was born. In America, this is due to the fact that a good portion of the population consists of people who have immigrated from all over the world (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). This paper discusses the usefulness of using the HAT when evaluating three culturally diverse families. The Italian Americans, Spanish Americans, and Filipino Americans will be compared to identify the differences in health protection, health maintenance, health restoration, common health traditions and practices. The HAT assessment consists of twenty-nine questions that focus specifically on an individual’s cultural background, religious practices, beliefs, and family relations. By using the Heritage Assessment Tool the nurse learns about the patient’s culture which assists in better caring for a culturally wide range of patients (Saver, 2007). Not only does this...
Words: 1118 - Pages: 5
...Every individual has a cultural heritage. Each culture views the world differently. Heritage is whom we are, where we came from and our historical roots. The Heritage Assessment Tool is designed to “give nurses an understanding of the patient’s traditional health and illness beliefs and practices so that culturally appropriate interventions can be initiated. The tool is a series of twenty nine questions. These twenty nine questions are designed to determine a patient’s ethnic, cultural, and religious background,” (Flowers, D.L., 2005). The Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) , is a check list used by professionals to gain knowledge of patients culture and beliefs prior to initiating care (Spector 2000). In combination with questions that relate to health beliefs and practices the HAT assessment includes events in their childhood, which contribute to the values, and beliefs in adulthood (Spector, 1989). NursesThe Heritage Assessment Tool is a worksheet operated by people in the medical field in order to recognize the standpoint of a patient in respect to culture and beliefs. It’s an accurate method in which the medical professional comprehends the patients prior to beginning any interventions. Ultimately the objective is to diminish disease and ease anguish in the most effectual way that is feasible, it is wise for the licensed practitioner to recognize the utmost comfy actions for the client. (Edelman & Mandle, 2010) The heritage assessment tool aids medical professionals...
Words: 951 - Pages: 4
...Running head: HERITAGE ASSESSMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION IN NURSING Heritage Assessment and Implementation in Nursing Katrina L. Ford Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V September 8, 2012 A heritage assessment in nursing is a vital tool to learning about a patient. By finding out about the patient’s family and friends we can learn about their support system. If we learn how close to a culture our patient is this will give us an idea of how true they hold their beliefs or if they have went mainstream with the American culture. Doing interviews with different cultures gives us a look into their personal beliefs and can help nurses to provide better care and teaching to these patients. Some patients we will learn were born in America and have American beliefs on healthcare while others who were born in America retain the culture that they were raised in. In the American culture which is what my family is we have traditionally believed that there are explanations for ailments that happen to us. As Americans we know that science has an explanation for what happens. Such things as high blood pressure because of eating too many salty foods or being overweight can be attributed to scientific information explaining these things. Our culture is known for not going to see a physician unless we are sick and we neglect our health maintenance. However, a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that a lot of Americans don’t have health insurance so it makes it difficult...
Words: 1143 - Pages: 5
...Heritage Assessment Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V United States is a melting pot of diverse cultures and people from all ethnics around the world live in this country. The impact of the multicultural societies has tremendously affected the health care industry and evoked the great challenges to the professionals in this career. Heritage Assessment which was developed by Rachel Spector in 2000 provides a comprehensive analysis tool to identify patients and their ancestors’ cultural values, religious beliefs, ethnic background and etc. nurses are able to utilize this tool to improve the health care quality for the patients from diverse ethnics. This paper focuses on the usefulness of Heritage Assessment in evaluating the needs of patients and families, the traditions and practices from three different families in health maintenance, health protection and health restoration based on culture heritage through the interviews. This paper also addresses the diversity and similarity of the three ethnic groups: Hispanic, Chinese and Filipino. Heritage Assessment encompasses twenty nine questions including where the ancestors of the individual are from, information about the parents, siblings and relatives, relationship between the family members, religion beliefs, life styles and language preferences and etc. By studying this assessment along with further communication, nurses are able to develop a detailed and customized care plan for the individual. Heritage Assessment...
Words: 1489 - Pages: 6
