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.
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.
She is not married and her significant other does reside with her in Louisville, KY. Her family also lives in Louisville close to her residence. The Abolos family is from the Philippines and did not move to the United States until she was 32 years of age. She resides with her husband and 2 children in Louisville, KY. What are the differences in each of these cultures regarding health maintenance? The writer was born to a middle class religiously diverse family.
Her family structure is different than any typical Asian American household because her parents don’t communicate with each other. The reason her mother immigrated to the United States, was because her father saved her from a tragedy that happened during the time he was at China. Ying-Ying never said or objected anything from her husband because when she was younger, she grew up with her baby sitter, Amah, telling her to “never ask, only listen” (pg. 70). Throughout Ying-Ying’s life, she never expressed herself and was quiet most of the time, even around her daughter who was the only person she was able to communicate to in the house.
The conversation with patients and families tells much about the way they feel. As a health care provider, treating patients and families with empathy, listening, and respect enhances clinician-patient relationship. The health care provider must communicate with patients and their significant others about medical conditions, needed tests, explaining their medication actions, and possible side effects. The nurse must communicate effectively by using clear terms and avoiding medical jargons that could
Nursing diagnosis is a way to express care needs that identify those who receive care, enabling application of possible nursing interventions. Such diagnoses also lead to possible standardized language among nurses and contribute to the development of nursing knowledge. The NANDA International classification(20) brings together a set of nursing diagnoses. Therefore, the language used in NANDA-I helps professionals to communicate their experiences with patients. It also contributes to patient care by classifying nursing phenomena and standardizing language among nurses.
All of us that live in the United States are part of a varied society with different ethnicities and cultures. As healthcare providers we must be competent and able to provide care that is holistic and culturally appropriate to our patients and their families. One way to do this is to understand one’s heritage by using the Heritage Assessment tool which is comprised of 29 questions and it accurately assesses and paints a clear picture of the patient’s health traditions, their beliefs and practices when it comes to maintenance, protection and restoration of health. The heritage assessment tool helps identify various traditions and heritage unique to different cultures. By having an understanding of the patients’ beliefs regarding health, sickness, diet, birth and death the healthcare providers will provide better care resulting in a better experience with better outcomes for all involved.
Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist and nurse professor who is mostly known for her Theory of Human Caring. The main concept of the theory is caring for the purpose of healing, dignity, respecting the wholeness of humanity. Jean Watson refers to human being as valued person to be cared, respected, nurtured, understood and assisted. Within caring theory, the primary nursing consideration is the creation of caring, the relationship with the patient. Watson’s caring philosophy is used to guide transformative models of caring and healing practices for nurses, different healthcare professionals, caregivers and patients worldwide.
The traditional approach includes collecting subject matter on “biographical data, present health concerns (or present illness) and the chief complaint, past history, family history, review of system and patient data” (Farrell & Dempsey, 2010, p. 74). The assessment interview builds the foundation of the nurse and patient relationship. Building good rapport with the patient will alleviate any stress, anxiety or discomfort the patient may be feeling. The patient will be asked personal questions and at times may not understand or may not want to divulge information about their personal life/situation. As a nurse being open and honest, explaining why this type of information is necessary and asking open-ended questions will help prompt the patient to disclose the facts required, expedite the process and be fundamental in performing a successful assessment (Springhouse, 2004).
The nurse also has to treat the patient with dignity and aide in the healing process that is conducive to each individual. The scope of practice is a parameter set in place that defines the rolls, procedures, actions, and processes are permitted by a licensed professional. An example would be a RN administering medication to a patient or doing a care plan after patient check in and assessment. An advanced practice nurse has skills beyond the normal scope of practice of a RN. They generally have more knowledge and experience in a concentrated field of study with a complexity of skills and intervention practices.