RUNNING HEAD: CULTURAL COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT TOOL.

Review of The Heritage Assessment Tool.

Literature Review

Introduction The Heritage Assessment Tool is a simple form compromised of 29 questions that is used for identifying how a person views themselves; this tool is utilized for cultural competency in care of the individual (Spector, 2000). The questions focus on where your family originated, the size of your family and setting of your childhood. Family dynamics, religious preferences of self and family, participation in ethnic and religious activities, and language (Spector, 2000). This assessment tool has high face validity and questions are simple for the client to understand and answer the questions being asked of them.
Abilities of the assessment tool based on three volunteer survey participants. The three individuals that completed the Assessment tool for this review was a Hispanic man 41 years of age, a 25 year old female of Caucasian background, and a 18 year old African American. Two of the individuals are geographically located in Arizona at this point in their life, one is located in Texas. None of the participants were born outside of the United States.
Participant One The first participant was the 41 year old male of Hispanic background, he identified he was adopted and has no contact with his birth mother. He had 2 brothers and 3 sisters in his adoptive family. He grew up in a suburban community, both adoptive parents are from Arizona. He has maintained contact with siblings of adoptive family and he will see his family members once a year. He identified his family name as being changed as he took on his adoptive last name at the age of 2 months. He identifies as being Lutheran, his spouse is the same religion as himself. His spouse is not the same ethnic background and he always attended public schools. He says he is unaware of his neighbors religion or ethnic background so he did not feel comfortable with that question. They are active in their church and they do not have any food preparation activities for their religious preferences. They do not participate in ethnic activities, his friend are not from the same ethnic background as him, his native language is identified as English and they do speak English in the home.
Participant Two The second individual interviewed was a 25 year old Caucasian female. Her mother is from Oklahoma and her father is from California they both grew up in the United States. Fathers parents were born in England and Mothers parents were born in Oklahoma. She has 1 half brother and 1 half sister. She grew up in a rural setting, growing up only her parents lived with her, and she sees extended family once per year but they do maintain contact. Her family name was not changed and her religious preference is LDS. Her spouse is the same religion but different in ethnic background. She went to public schools and neighbors are different in ethnic background. She belongs to a religious institution but she is not active in her religion, she attends her religious institution only on special events. She does not do anything special for food preparation and does not participate in ethnic activities. Her friends are not from the same ethnic background as herself, and her native language is English she does speak English at home.
Participant Three The third individual was a 18 year old African American male. His mother was born in California and his Father was born in Carolina. His grandparents on both sides were born in California. He has 3 brothers. He grew up in an urban environment. He was born here in the United States he lived with his grandmother and aunt while growing up. He is in contact with his other family members 1 time yearly. His original family name was not changed. He has no religious preference, and is not active in any religious activities. He also does not have a spouse. He attends public schools and lives in a neighborhood where his neighbors are a different ethnic background than himself. He does not engage in ethnic activities, and he does not prepare food for ethnic or religious reasons. His friends are not of his ethnic background. His native language is English and this is the language he uses for reading and speaking.
Review of Results After reviewing the completed Assessment tool this student feels that it does have some strengths and weaknesses. For individuals whom are adopted it is difficult to give much of the family background or history biologically and geographically. Individuals answering the questions regarding friends and neighbors seemed confused as several stated that no one is the same ethnicity. Also attending public or private schools may not have an effect on care; or ones ability to understand care as public and private schools both have similar state held standards, some participants made remarks about not having the income to support private school; or feeling less than those whom gained education through private institutions. The advantages to completing the assessment and having it on file is for reference for ethnic, religious, and language preferences. This assessment would also make the patient feel like they are engaged in their medical experience by sharing background information about ones self (Ford, Ford, Fottler & Roberts, 2000). All information on the paperwork would be used to individualize care and utilized for patient comfort while receiving care. This assessment would also show family dynamics that could be used for decision making when trying to determine how to proceed with patient care if the patient were needing to brainstorm for emergency contact; or wished for social services to reach out to a family member for discharge care. This assessment would be helpful in determining patient location in the facility for in patient care; for example if someone identifies as practicing Jewish ethnic and religious practices you would not want to put them on the wing where a Christmas tree is outside of their door (Aguirre & Maleku, 2014). Meal preparation can be customized for ethnic and religious preference to accommodate the patient, as nutrition is an import part of recovery (Ford, Ford, Fottler & Roberts, 2000).

Conclusion In conclusion it would be useful to complete the assessment with patients comfort and care. It is important for cultural competency in the health care field as everyone regardless of culture will need medical attention at some point in their lives. Having a procedure or treatment done can be very stressful and it is important to have a feeling that you are involved in your health care decision making. Comfort and recovery go hand in hand, if a individual is comfortable, understand care they are receiving and have nutrition, religious values met they will have a better environment for healing to begin.

References

Aguirre R, Maleku, A (2014) Culturally Competent Health Care from the Immigrant Lens: A Qualitative Interetive Meta-Synthesis (QIMS). Journal Article; Social work in public health. Vol 29.

Ford, E. Ford, R. Fottler, M. Roberts,V. (2000) Creating a Healing Environment; The importance of the Service Setting in the New Consumer Oriented Healthcare System. American College of Healthcare executives. Vol 45 Issue 2 .

Spector R, E. (2000) Cultural Care: Guide to the heritage assessment and health traditions (5th ed.)Pearson Education/ PH College.