Abstract
Cultural competency is crucial for healthcare workers to be able to provide high-quality care for the diverse patient population. The analyzed article helps to acquire a better understanding of the health needs of Asian Americans. The research design to identify three risk groups of Asian Americans according to their health needs. While the article has valuable implications for nursing practice, the literature review and background information are limited to identify to acquire a holistic picture of the state of things concerning the matter. The article adds to the present body of research b providing a relevant tool for assessing healthcare needs.
Introduction
Cultural competency is of extreme importance for healthcare professionals to be able to provide quality care for all cultural groups. According to Sharifi, Adib-Hajbaghery, and Najafi (2019), cultural competence includes cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural sensitivity, cultural skill, cultural proficiency, and dynamicity. This means that nurses are to be aware of the differences in health care needs among patients with diverse cultural backgrounds in order to be able to address the priority issues. The present paper offers a formal analysis of an article by Jang et al. (2017) with the title “The risk typology of healthcare access and its association with unmet healthcare needs in Asian Americans” and discusses its implications for nursing practice.
Background
For background information, the article focuses on providing statistical data about its demographic characteristics. Jang et al. (2019) state that the group is growing rapidly in comparison with overall population growth in the US. For instance, in ten years, from 2000 to 2010, the culture group grew in numbers by 45.6%, while the population growth rate was 9.7% (Jang et al., 2019). While the background information gives significant insights into the importance of the proposed research, it fails to identify the cultural group. Moreover, the provided statistical data is outdated since it refers to a period of seven years before the article was published. In short, the background information provided in the introduction of the article seems partially relevant and insufficient.
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is not identified in any part of the paper. Considering the conclusion drawn by the authors, the research aimed at assessing the rate of unmet healthcare needs among Asian Americans. Additionally, the purpose of the paper was to elaborate the risk group typology for healthcare access to be able to understand the complexity of the matter. Instead of addressing every risk factor separately, the study identifies three groups according to health insurance, the usual place for care, level of income, nativity, length of stay in the U.S., English proficiency, and acculturation (Jang et al., 2017). However, even though the aim of the research may be deciphered from the context, the article could benefit from the explicit statement of purpose.
Research Method
The authors utilized a series of latent profile analyses to identify the characteristics of health care risk groups. The researchers performed the analysis using data from the 2015 Asian American Quality of Life Survey. The sample size of N = 2,609 seems sufficient for ensuring the reliability of findings (Jang et al., 2017). Moreover, the diversification of the sample size supports its generalizability since it includes people with different cultural background and place of living.
Even though the utilized method is known to produce results with high validity and reliability (Petersen, Qualter, & Humphrey, 2019), the authors failed to address these issues explicitly. There are no justifications about why the method was used and what other approaches were appropriate for answering the research question. The authors state that cross-sectional design was among the primary limitations of the study. However, the method is applicable to the present research, and it helps gain significant insights into the field of interest.
Literature Review
The authors of the article conducted a literature review to identify the current state of research concerning healthcare risk factors among Asian Americans. The literature review led to understanding that Asian Americans are a fast-growing cultural group, which is understudied in health disparities research (Jang et al., 2017). Moreover, Jang et al. (2017) conclude that national surveys often “portray Asian Americans favorably with respect to their health and healthcare access” (p. 78). The purpose of the literature review was to identify the variables for profiling risk factors for the research.
They included health insurance, presence of usual place for care, annual household income, nativity, length of stay in the U.S., English proficiency, and acculturation. The majority of the reviewed literature supported the importance of these characteristics.
While the literature review is among the crucial parts of any study, Jang et al. (2017) do not have a designated section for the matter and provide a brief overview of the literature in the introduction of the article. Moreover, among the 29 entries in the reference list, only six sources were up-to-date at the moment of article publication. Therefore, the findings and relevance of research may be questionable, considering that more research may have emerged on the matter, making the findings irrelevant. At the same time, there is no information about the strategy for the literature search, which limits the understanding of the current situation concerning the research question. In summary, the literature review is among the weaker parts of the reviewed article.
Implications for Nursing Practice
The authors explicitly discuss the implications of the research for healthcare practice. Jang et al. (2017) state that the study “sheds light on the importance of using culturally and linguistically sensitive approaches to reach out to the Asian American population, and it provides an opportunity to reflect on the myth of Asian Americans as a model minority” (p. 78). Moreover, the identified subgroups can help healthcare professionals, including nurses and nurse practitioners, to prioritize interventions depending on the risk group. In other words, instead of analyzing the complexity of risk factors and their implications, front-line care providers will only need to classify a patient into one of the three subgroups.
The practice may support the time-efficiency of nurses and other care providers and improve patient outcomes. While the introduced model is tested only on the Asian American population, it can be used to assess the needs of other cultural groups. In short, the study helps to achieve cultural competency by providing a viable tool for assessing the health care needs of various cultural groups.
Conclusion
The analyzed article contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the needs of diverse cultural groups in the US. Even though the article’s literature review and background information is limited and only partially relevant, the research design compensates for the matter. The article can also benefit from an explicit purpose statement and discussion of the applicability of utilized methods. Even though the study has some flaws, it provides a useful tool for assessing health care needs among different cultural groups and identifies the disparities in healthcare provision among Asian Americans, which is vital for nurses to achieve cultural competence.
References
Jang, Y., Park, N., Yoon, H., Huang, Y., Rhee, M., Chiriboga, D., & Kim, M. (2017). The risk typology of healthcare access and its association with unmet healthcare needs in Asian Americans. Health & Social Care in the Community, 26(1), 72-79. Web.
Petersen, K., Qualter, P., & Humphrey, N. (2019). The application of latent class analysis for investigating population child mental health: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. Web.
Sharifi, N., Adib-Hajbaghery, M., & Najafi, M. (2019). Cultural competence in nursing: A concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 99. Web.