Introduction
The significance of considering culture as a factor in healthcare is specifically important for multicultural countries. Ion that regard, the diversity of cultures result have a great impact on the health of those different cultures. Cultural background, heritage, and language “have a considerable impact on both how patients access and respond to health care services and how the providers practice within the system” (Spector, 2009, p. 5). With the advancement of the topic of cultural diversity in the field of health care it can be stated that that health services became more culturally and linguistically appropriate. One of the tools that might be helpful in such aspect is the heritage assessment tool, a questionnaire that helps determining the degree of the patient’s identification with a traditional heritage. In that regard, this paper presents a summary of my self-conducted heritage assessment, outlining common health traditions, and the way my family subscribes to such traditions.
Summary
According to the classification of the emerging populations in the United States, It can be stated that India can be classified as Asian-American and Pacific Islanders. The main characteristic of such group is being one of the healthiest populations in the United States (Edelman & Mandle, 2005, p. 34). Within India, nevertheless, there are many health traditions that might differ from those mitigated by immigration. In that regard, common health traditions might still be observed. I can state that I might still practice a few of the traditional health tradition, if they might be called that.
In terms of maintaining health, the mental aspect is still practiced, which implies being surrounding by family and friends and keeping connections with them. For protection, it can be stated that the physical aspect was mostly observed, where using herbal medicine for prevention can be seen as one of those tradition. The dimension of restoring health was absent from any health traditions, where usually no actions or procedures are taken prior to the services of health care. Evaluating such assessment of health traditions, it can be stated that it conforms to the heritage assessment, according to which I have a fair identification with my cultural heritage.
There were some differences observed in terms of health traditions for each of the dimension of the assessment. For the dimension of maintaining health, the main differences were between my family and the Arab family. The traditions of the Arab family were related to the spiritual aspect, which included practicing prayers, attending mosques, and following religious practices prescribed by the prophet. My traditions in my family were mostly related to the mental aspect, where frequent visits to relatives, and the over all fell of comfort surrounded by friends and family was the main condition of leading a healthy life. The Russian family, on the other hand, did not identify any health traditions related to the aspect of maintaining health.
Similarly, the health protection traditions differed between my family and the Arab family. Spiritual aspects were identified in protective health traditions, especially in what concerns the health of children. Such aspects included saying prayers to protect children form evil-wishing which is believed to harm the child’s health. My family maintained health protection through herbs and natural products which are believed to have preventive effects. Similarly, the Russian family did not identify any health traditions for protecting health.
One common point was found in the dimension of health restoration, where all families did not health traditions that were followed prior to going to the hospital. It should be noted that all of the aspects in which an identification with the cultural heritage were identified, the nature to which such heritage prevented the delivery of health services is unknown. In that regard, for two families there is some identification with the cultural heritage, while the third family initially relied on Western health care delivery (Spector, 2009).
Generally, the subscription to these traditions in my family is not an issue of vital importance, i.e. neither such subscription prevents from having help, nor it substitutes professional help in serious health matters. It can be assumed that the same can be said about the Arab family which is living in the US for a fair amount of time. The identification with heritage might be seen in minor health issues which those families assume to have knowledge of. Nevertheless, when a wrong diagnosis might be made, such cultural identification might prove to be considered by health care providers. Thus, the importance of assessing heritage and cultural background can be understood.
Additionally, the identification with my professional heritage –nursing, provides an understanding of health care issues, including those culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate. Similarly, such heritage allows identifying cultural heritage aspects that might pose barriers for health care service delivery.
Conclusion
The present paper provided a summary of the heritage assessment test. Additionally, the paper provided a comparison of existing health traditions. It can be concluded that heritage assessment can be a helpful tool that might aid health practitioners to provide health services that will be culturally and linguistically appropriate.
References
Edelman, C., & Mandle, C. (2005). Health Promotion throughout the life span: Elsevier Health Science.
Spector, R. E. (2009). Cultural diversity in health and illness (7th ed.): Prentice Hall Health.