Cultural factors to be considered when building a health history for patients with diverse backgrounds
In May 2012, Alice Randall wrote an article for on the cultural factors that encouraged black women to maintain a weight above what is considered healthy. Randall explained—from her observations and her personal experience as a black woman—that many African-American communities and cultures consider women who are overweight to be more beautiful and desirable than women at a healthier weight. As she put it, “Many black women are fat because we want to be” (Randall, 2012).
Randall’s statements sparked a great deal of controversy and debate; however, they emphasize an underlying reality in the healthcare field: different populations, cultures, and groups have diverse beliefs and practices that impact their health. Nurses and healthcare professionals should be aware of this reality and adapt their health assessment techniques and recommendations to accommodate diversity.
In this Discussion, you will consider different socioeconomic, spiritual, lifestyle, and other cultural factors that should be taken into considerations when building a health history for patients with diverse backgrounds. Your Instructor will assign a case study to you for this Discussion.
To prepare:
· Reflect on your experiences as a nurse and on the information provided in this week’s Learning Resources on diversity issues in health assessments.
· By Day 1 of this week, you will be assigned a case study by your Instructor. Note: Please see the “Course Announcements” section of the classroom for your case study assignment.
· Reflect on the specific socioeconomic, spiritual, lifestyle, and other cultural factors related to the health of the patient assigned to you.
· Consider how you would build a health history for the patient. What questions would you ask, and how would you frame them to be sensitive to the patient’s background, lifestyle, and culture? Develop five targeted questions you would ask the patient to build his or her health history and to assess his or her health risks.
· Think about the challenges associated with communicating with patients from a variety of specific populations. What strategies can you as a nurse employ to be sensitive to different cultural factors while gathering the pertinent information?
ASSIGNMENT
CASE STUDY: AG is a 54-year-old Caucasian male who was referred to your clinic to establish care after a recent hospitalization after having a seizure related to alcohol withdrawal. He has hypertension and a history of alcohol and cocaine abuse. He is homeless and is currently living at a local homeless shelter. He reports that he is out of his amlodipine 10 mg which he takes for hypertension. He reports he is abstaining from alcohol and cocaine but needs to smoke cigarettes to calm down since he is not drinking anymore .
- Post an explanation of the specific socioeconomic, spiritual, lifestyle, and other cultural factors associated with the patient you were assigned.
- Explain the issues that you would need to be sensitive to when interacting with the patient, and why.
- Provide at least five targeted questions you would ask the patient to build his or her health history and to assess his or her health risks.
Diversity and Health Assessments
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Diversity and Health Assessments
Cultural Factors to be Considered when Building a Health History for Patients with Diverse Backgrounds
“Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” (Jesse Jackson). Diversity is the practice of including and involving people from all backgrounds and identities to participate in a group or organization. Diversity may refer to when a healthcare facility’s medical and administrative staff represent a wide range of experience and backgrounds (Gomez & Bernet, 2019). Diversity in healthcare ensures that all backgrounds and perspectives are adequately represented in the medical industry, where it provides the best available patient care. For healthcare workers, diversity creates a strong feeling of inclusion and community, making the workplace feel safer and more enjoyable. Lack of diversity can lead minority healthcare workers feeling stifled or unable to express their unique talents and personality traits. A health assessment can be defined as a set of questions to a patient about personal behaviors, live-changing behaviors, and health goals and priorities, including overall health. The essay aims to explore the cultural factors associated with a 54-year-old Caucasian male suffering from a seizure related to alcohol withdrawal and look at the sensitive issues when interacting with the patient.
The Socioeconomic, Spiritual, Lifestyle, and other Cultural Factors Associated with the Patient
When building a patient history, it would be essential for a nurse practitioner to take socioeconomic, spiritual, and cultural factors into consideration. The health provider should also understand that people have different cultural and religious practices influencing their daily life, health, and well-being. Thus, when interacting with a patient to obtain data to help them develop their health history, the health provider is advised to be careful of sensitive comments that would be considered offensive and can cause the patient to withhold essential healthcare information (Yevoo et al., 2018). When educating themselves on the different cultures and their specific needs, a competent and fortunate healthcare provider can offer competent care to people from other cultures. Culturally capable healthcare providers can adjust to the unique needs of patients from various cultural backgrounds and develop a trusting relationship between healthcare providers and patients. To form a trusting provider-patient working relationship, the healthcare has to be knowledgeable of the patient’s specific culture. To succeed a positive patient outcome, avoiding pigeonholes would be essential. From the case study, it is a 54-year-old Caucasian male referred to the nurse practitioner’s clinic for treatments having been hospitalized due to seizer he suffered from alcohol withdrawal. Seizure is a transient occurrence of signs and symptoms due to abnormal excessive and synchronous neuronal activity in the brain (Falco-Walter et al., 2018). Experiencing two or more seizures at least 24 hours apart with an unknown cause is usually considered epilepsy, and from the case study, it is clear that the man is homeless, suffering from hypertension, and has a history of alcohol and cocaine abuse.
Sensitive Issues when Interacting with the Patient
As a healthcare provider, one should use the cultural assessment guidelines to obtain sensitive and essential information about the patient’s beliefs and spiritual practices, including healthcare practice and daily formalities. The NIDA-Modified ASSIST screening tool will efficiently capture information on the patient’s drug use and alcohol abuse (Oga et al., 2020). This tool enables clinicians to review different questions in determining harmful substances affecting a person’s health after consumption. During the interaction with the patient to gain information on their health and well-being, the nurse practitioner has to be careful with their choice of words so that the patient has a bad feeling about his current socioeconomic condition. The nurse practitioner is advised to be careful when asking the patient culturally sensitive questions and communicate in a way that makes the patient provide all the necessary information needed for building the patient’s health history (Pun et al., 2018). Some of the targeted questions to build his health history and assess his health risk include asking how he would describe his physical condition and well-being and what spirituality means to him. The next question to ask the patient would be asking him about how he carries out his spiritual beliefs, including how he would describe his cultural practice and how he ended up abusing drugs. Lastly, it would be essential to ask the patient to state the things he has done to overcome drug abuse and how he supports himself in the current lifestyle finally, ask him if he feels sad and depressed at times, and if so, how often does it happen and how do he overcome sadness and depression. Such questions would be essential for a healthcare provider to develop a patient’s health history and assess their health risk.
Conclusion
Diversity is when a healthcare facility’s medical and administrative staff represent a wide range of experience and backgrounds, where in healthcare, it ensures that all backgrounds and perspectives are adequately represented in the medical industry, and provides the best available patient care. The patient suffered from a seizure and also had hypertension; at the same time, he was homeless. The nurse practitioner is advised to be careful when asking the patient culturally sensitive questions and communicate in a way that makes the patient provide all the necessary information needed for building the patient’s health history where they would use the NIDA-Modified ASSIST screening tool, which enables a healthcare provider to go through different questions identifying substances which may be harmful to the patient.
References
Falco-Walter, J. J., Scheffer, I. E., & Fisher, R. S. (2018). The new definition and classification of seizures and epilepsy. Epilepsy research, 139, 73-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eplepsyres.2017.11.015
Gomez, L. E., & Bernet, P. (2019). Diversity improves performance and outcomes. Journal of the National Medical Association, 111(4), 383-392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2019.01.006
Oga, E. A., Mark, K., Peters, E. N., & Coleman-Cowger, V. H. (2020). Validation of the NIDA-Modified ASSIST as a Screening Tool for Prenatal Drug Use in an Urban Setting in the US. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 14(5), 423.
Pun, J. K., Chan, E. A., Wang, S., & Slade, D. (2018). Health professional-patient communication practices in East Asia: An integrative review of an emerging field of research and practice in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(7), 1193-1206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2018.01.018
Yevoo, L. L., Agyepong, I. A., Gerrits, T., & van Dijk, H. (2018). Mothers’ reproductive and medical history misinformation practices as strategies against healthcare providers’ domination and humiliation in maternal care decision-making interactions: an ethnographic study in Southern Ghana. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 18(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-018-1916-9
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