...Culturally Competent Care for Mexican-Americans Terry A. Stevens Grand Canyon University: NUR 502- Theoretical Foundations for Nursing Roles and Practice January 13, 2016 Culturally Competent Care for Mexican-Americans For centuries nursing has been a dynamic, this is constantly evolving and adapting in response to a wide range of stimuli. A recent circumstance that has influenced nursing considerably is the consumer mandate for culturally competent care in an increasingly diverse, multicultural society. Although Euro-American culture has reign superior in the United States, the nation has shifted to a conviction where various ethnic, racial, and religious groups thrive in a single society. As a result, the importance of culturally competent care and understanding cultural differences is crucial for the nursing profession. This manuscript focuses on the Mexican-American culture. This particular culture was selected because Mexican-Americans represent the largest and fastest-growing minority population in the United States (Eggenberger, S.K., Grassley, J. & Restrepo E., 2006). Furthermore, Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the United States. The prevalence of the Mexican-American population suggests the need for nurses to become more accustomed with Mexican-American culture and values. The purpose of this document is to promote nurses’ awareness of culturally constructed concepts of the Mexican-American culture in order to provide culturally competent...
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...Mexican cultural behaviors I need the rest of this report please... Each culture has certain beliefs and values that have strong influences on how they live their lives. In this case study, we will review the interactions between a nurse and a male Mexican patient. Case Study In caring for Mr. J.G. a man of Mexican descent, the female nurse enters the room to give discharge instructions. She enters the room and rapidly goes down her checklist of the things that Mr. J.G. must do after discharge. The nurse has had a long day and leans over the bed table to take some stress off her back. Ten minutes later Mr. J.G. calls and asks for the nurse-in-charge and complains about the rude nurse who was just in his room. Why did the patient consider the nurse's behavior rude? How would you as a professional nurse deal with such a situation? Review of the Nurses Behavior In the Mexican culture, family, respect and modesty are important values. In this scenario, the nurse provides the patient with educational information in a hurried manner while leaning over the bedside table. It does not appear that she had built a rapport with the patient. She did not include the patient’s family nor did she take the time to find out who would be involved in Mr. J.G. home care. Modesty is a highly valued belief in Mexican culture. When the nurse leaned over the bedside table, this may be viewed as a lack of modesty and respect by the patient. Mexican cultural behaviors Both...
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...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 Assessment, the nurse can obtain cultural information regarding religious beliefs, language preference and the degree of acculturation. Interpretation of the results are as follow: the greater the number of positive responses, the greater the person’s identification with his or her heritage. This cultural...
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...What Chicanos and Latinos have dealt with while living in America has changed their identities and behaviors. Chicanos/nas identities have been impacted positively or negatively due to experiences in school and because of them being aware of their race. In addition, comparing themselves to other minorities and being conscious has affected their identities. Furthermore, there aren’t only Chicanos/nas in America, there are three separate groups which are Chicanos, Mexican Americans, and Latinos. Even though these groups sound closely related to each other, they have their differences. Some of the differences include how politically/socially involved they are, how much education they’ve received, transnational identity, and how much they...
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...United States of America consists of a plethora of cultures. The population of Mexico is 113.7 million people and increasing 1.10 percent annually (Huntington, 2005). Mexico’s population is an estimated 60 percent mixture of with indigenous heritage and Spanish. The multiple indigenous groups are approximately 30 percent, and the European ancestry is approximately nine percent. The largest city in Mexico is Mexico City and New York is the largest city in the United States of America. The two cities are over 17 million, another similarity between the two countries (Rosenberg, 2013). The United States of America and Mexico differ in values, patterns in language, beliefs, and values. The average American generally speaks English and the average Mexican generally speaks Spanish. Throughout areas in both countries, various individuals speak both English and Spanish. The knowledge of both languages assists in communication among international relationships, between the two...
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...In Waretown High, symbolic boundaries are most obviously drawn between the preps and the las chicas. Preps refer to white, middle-class girls, characterized by good academic performance and enrollment in the college-prep curriculum. They usually plan to attend four-year college after graduation. Las chicas, on the other hand, are Mexican-American settled-living working-class girls who are usually tracked into vocational courses. Teen pregnancy is more common among and more often associated with las chicas. Symbolic boundaries between the preps and the las chicas are manifested in the different styles of dress and makeup. Unlike the preps who dress relatively nonsexual and wear light-colored or no makeup, las chicas wear more sexualized apparel...
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...certain group in consideration based solely on class or category. The terms race and ethnicity mean to understand the behavior and beliefs of people in terms of their cultural tradition and experiences. People should not let their cultural biases prevent them from understanding other people cultures. Some people will have difficulty given the emotional feelings and beliefs that they have regarding race and ethnicity. However, having an open mind in order to gain knowledge about other cultures is worth the effort. These concepts are important to the United States because of its cultural diversity. The most popular ethnic groups include Latinos, Chinese, African Americans, European Americans, etc. These ethnic groups are all in different States throughout the U.S. There are different ethnic groups in businesses working together towards a common goal of the company. That is the reason it is so important for people to have an open mind about different cultures and behaviors. These ethnic groups are attracted to the United States because of the principles on human rights, freedom of speech, and religious freedom. The color of a person’s skin or their cultural beliefs or behavior should not determine how they are treated. Everyone should be treated with equality and justice. The United States is one of the greatest places to live because of the cultural diversity. Because of the diversity in this country I chose to write about the racial discrimination and Hispanics...
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...or attending a religious service other than his or her own. In this paper the topics that will be discussed will first be to describe an experience that I was in and felt uncomfortable at the time of this experience. The next topic discussed will be to discuss the preconceived notions about the experience. After this topic explaining how the notions were affected by a group influence will be discussed and the final topic being discussed will be to describe the reaction of the individuals who were in the presence during the situation and discuss the affect of these reactions on the writer’s behavior. The cultural situation the writer selected was attending a Mexican cookout. Working in a group home environment a person experiences different culture. The writer took one of his clients home for a home pass where the cookout was being held. The client and his family are of Mexican descent. On the way to the client’s house the writer felt nervous knowing that he or she was going somewhere that he or she had never been. The writer began to discuss with the client the kind of activities would be there to gain a little knowledge before attending the home pass. When the writer and the client arrived to the client’s house the client directed the writer into his or her house. When the writer walked into the client’s house the writer and client were greeted. The client began to speak in Spanish and, the writer did not understand what was being spoken. This made the writer uncomfortable...
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...Chapter 2. Overview of Mexican Culture This chapter provides an overview of Mexican culture in terms of social structure, family, gender, religion, language, literacy, communication styles, socioeconomic position, traditional health beliefs and practices, and health care-seeking behaviors. Readers are cautioned to avoid stereotyping Mexicans on the basis of these broad generalizations. Also note that Mexican culture, as all others, is dynamic and expressed in various ways, owing to individual life experience and personality. Some Mexicans living in the United States may be more or less acculturated to mainstream U.S. culture. Social Structure, Family, and Gender Typically, Mexican households in the United States consist of five or more people (Therrien & Ramirez, 2001). The traditional patriarchal structure grants the father or oldest male relative the greatest power, whereas women are expected to show submission (Kemp & Rasbridge, 2004). Though a matriarch often determines when a family member needs medical care, the male head still gives permission to seek treatment (Smith, 2000). The entire family, however, may be involved in the decision-making process (Galanti, 2004). Religion Christianity is the most common religion. Most Mexicans (89%) identify themselves as Catholic, while a smaller percentage (6%) identify themselves as Protestant (U.S. Department of State, 2004). Faith and church are often central to family and community...
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...clients by approaching folk medicine as a focal and culturally-imbedded component of their clients' overall health care. Moreover, the author addresses the need for health care professionals to become not only aware of folk medical practices, but to act as advocates for culturally competent health care within the larger health care delivery system which largely overlooks or downplays the significance of folk medicine. In an age of expensive and constricted mainstream health care services and the implementation of managed care, the author examines how folk medical practices factor into primary health care. PMID: 9418440 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] This article presents an approach to the evaluation of patient-held beliefs and behaviors that may not be concordant with those of biomedicine. Physicians and patients often hold discrepant models of health and illness that may affect the effectiveness of communication during the clinical visit. An extreme example of such a discrepancy exists when the patient feels that he or she has an illness that is not defined within the biomedical paradigm. These are commonly referred to as folk...
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...One of the largest and fastest growing minority groups in the United States consists of Mexican-Americans. The Mexican American history is riddled with discrimination, injustices, deportation, ethical cleansing, and suffering (Bravo, 2005). Many of the individuals among this group have been identified as being a particular concern among psychologists. Throughout the United States, there is a population of 20.8 million Hispanics in the United States, 13.3 million are that of Mexican American origin, 2.2 million are Puerto Rican, 1.1 million are Cuban, 2.8 million are Central and South American, and 1.4 million among other Hispanic groups (United States Bureau of the Census, 1991) Overall, working with this culture it is important for the psychologist...
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...How do I define my culture? This is a very thoughtful question… I was born and raised in Mexico, I am family oriented person, I feel more comfortable speaking my own language (Spanish) mostly when I express my feelings, I love Mexican food, and of course I love my country. I like to visit my family in Mexico and fill up my cup, get recharged (Enculturation) and come back to the US. Even though, there are many things that connect me with the Mexican culture, I cannot identify myself as 100% Mexican. There are some aspects of the Mexican culture that I cannot relate to, such as impunctuality, people not respecting the driving laws, and closed minded mentality (e.g. marriage between male and female, males have to be the providers in the household,...
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...religious and cultural background in relation to their views on health, illness and diseases. As defined by Winkelman, culture, is an element of ethnicity, consists of shared patterns of values and behaviors that characterize a particular group (as cited in Edelman & Mandle, 2010, p.32) Assessing these culturally diverse individuals and being aware of traditional health practices will improve the quality of care given to them. In this paper the writer will discuss the Hispanic, Haitian, and Filipino cultural backgrounds and how their heritage, as well as what their beliefs and values, affect their views on heath maintenance, protection, and restoration. Heritage Assessment Usefulness In assessing one’s heritage, cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds and preferences, and how it may directly relate to the person’s views on health and illness, the healthcare professional will be able to understand the individual as a whole and be able to tend to their needs better rather than just focusing on the illness itself. Being culturally competent means providing health care based on the understanding of the total context of the client’s complex situation through knowledge, attitude, and skills (CGU, 2011). The heritage assessment tool provides a good basis for the patient and health care professional to start a dialogue. In doing so, information leading to the team member having a better understanding of the client and how the client wishes to be treated regarding cultural beliefs will...
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...has presented cultural challenges that care givers must navigate to provide culturally competent service. Cultural competence during delivery of care requires sensitivity to the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of patients (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, 2002). As a consequence, care providers need cultural assessment tools that will enable them to elicit sensitive racial and ethnic information. The Heritage Assessment Tool provides care givers with such a tool. This paper examines the application of this tool on three different cultures and discusses its usefulness in planning for the maintenance, protection, and restoration of the health of diverse cultures. Three families of Mexican American, European American, and African American heritages were assessed using the Heritage Assessment Tool. The tool consists of 29 questions that determine how deeply an individual identifies with a certain tradition and answers to the questions provide cues on patients’ health traditions. The tool is based on the understanding that all patients are unique cultural beings, with personal health traditions and affected by cultural phenomena (Spector, 2013). The tool reveals an individual’s traditional health and illness beliefs and practices, and is important in deciding the suitable community care resources (p. 376-378). After performing a heritage assessment on the Mexican American, European American, and African American families, common health traditions based on cultural were...
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...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...
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