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.
Heritage Assessment The definition of heritage is something inherited at birth, such as personal characteristics, status, possessions, and anything that has been transmitted form the past or handed down by tradition ("heritage," 2009). The usefulness of The Heritage Assessment Tool is that it incorporates the above definition into a twenty nine question assessment which aids the interviewer in evaluating how much a person’s heritage influences their day to day life, such as their medicinal remedies, food, clothing, religious practices and their support system. It is important for a nurse to know their own cultural background as well as their patient’s background with this knowledge the healthcare provider will be able to make accurate, intelligent and informed decisions on a patients care and how to better meet their needs and by knowing one’s own background a nurse can separate their own beliefs or possible bias which will ultimately lead to better overall care of the patient. In health care a person’s heritage, culture and religious background plays a big part of their overall health, wellness and recovery. If a healthcare worker understands the dimensions of a patient’s cultural background they will be able to develop a better plan of care for their patient.
The United States of America is a country made up by immigrants from different backgrounds and cultures. Culture is “shaped by values, beliefs, norms, and practices that are shared by members of the same cultural group” (Edelman, 2010, p.32). In order to take a proper care of a patient nurses need to be culturally competent what means that they have to possess the skills and knowledge necessary to appreciate, respect, and work with individuals from different cultures. The Heritage Assessment Tool can be used to assess health maintenance, protection and restoration of individual cultural beliefs.” It can help you to perform a heritage assessment to determine how deeply a given person identifies with a particular tradition. It is most useful in setting the stage for understanding a person’s health traditions” (Giger & Davidhizar, 1995) To demonstrate how cultural heritage influences people in their health maintenance, health promotion and health restoration I interviewed two families, one from Chinese culture and one from Jewish culture.
Ethical standards, I believe should be in allocating resources for elderly and end of life is the right to a good health care. Giving the elderly resources for a good healthcare is very important because they are part of the society. As nurses, our obligations are to our patients, making sure they are safe, comfortable and well. Analyzing Ethical Challenge According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) (2011), code of ethics; provision 2. It is the nurse’s primary responsibility for each patient to be given good care, no matter their social
Hispanic, Polish, and African American Cultural Heritage Assessment Lynette Harris Grand Canyon University Family Centered Health Promotion NRS-429V Carrie Trimberger July 19, 2015 Hispanic, Polish, and African American Cultural Heritage Assessment Start paragraph here Cultural competence and respect for others in nursing is the ability to provide effective nursing care for patients from different cultures. (Anderson, 2012) The heritage assessment tool can be used to evaluate the beliefs and needs of the patient and their family. The information learned from the heritage assessment tool will help to better provide culturally competent nursing care. Three different cultures that have many similarities in cultural beliefs are Hispanic, African American, and Polish. All three of these cultures have strong family ties, religious beliefs and traditions.
It therefore becomes apparent why it is imperative for professionals of all types to have an awareness, knowledge, and appreciation for others whose beliefs, practices, and values are different. This essay discusses how this awareness relates to the concept of cultural competency and the implications it has on the professional and healthcare industry. What is cultural competence? To be culturally competent the healthcare provider needs to understand his/her own worldviews and those of the patient, while avoiding stereotyping and misapplication of scientific knowledge. Cultural competence is obtaining cultural information and then applying that knowledge.
5). She also taught and mentored her transcultural nursing approach, which continues to be used today. Leininger did not believe in the integration of the standard metaparadigm so often used by nursing theorists to define the terms of health, environment, nursing, and person (Leininger & McFarland, 2006, p. 7). It was important that both caring and cultural regard was at the center of nursing care and has succeeded in bringing awareness to the validity of providing culturally competent care. Leininger believed that caring and culture were to be defined as a human phenomenon and not centered on a restricting metaparadigm (Leininger & McFarland,
In my own experience as a psychiatric nurse I have in recent years become aware of the importance of an understanding of cultural diversity. Whenever one treats or deals with patients from different cultures, one has to take into account their cultural norms and predilections in the process of nursing. This also relates to the view that nursing should be a profession that is as open as possible to the feelings and views of the patient. This means to be effective the nurse must be aware of the way that people from different cultures perceive and respond to the healing process. "This trend towards an awareness of cultural diversity is evident in many fields, including nursing and healthcare.
Patient’s rights are supposed to be respected and carried out. I feel that Dr. K acting based on feelings as opposed to the issue at hand and not providing the total facts to the family in this scenario. In this scenario the above regulation implies that nurses are responsible for understanding and abiding by the laws that regulate nursing. Although, Dr. K was correct to be concerned about Mr. E’s being competent to understand the issue at hand regarding his medical status, the family should be informed totally. Nurses must be accountable for their actions and make sound decisions when administering care.
Control of pain, of other symptoms, and of psychological, social and spiritual problems is paramount. The goal of palliative care is the achievement of the best possible quality of life for patients and their families” ( in Macdonald 2005:70). The purpose of this essay is to summarize the choosen article; relate the topic to my future role and professional practice as a nurse; and also state the study skills used in the selection, reading and writing of this essay. This article was written by Kathy Kinlaw. She is an associate director and programme director in Health Sciences Ethics, Emory University, Atlanta, United States (US).