Diversity and Health Assessments Essay Example

In the United States, race, culture, and ethnicity are highly drawn in individuals' health. Regardless of the national health progress, disparities continue in the incidence of illness for Native, Hispanic, Asians, Africans, and Alaska Americans ("Cultural Competence | National Prevention Information Network," 2015). As a clinical nurse, the patient I have selected is an 86-year-old Asian man. The man financially depends on his daughter who is also a single mother and has little money in helping the health needs of his father. A scientific study by Glymour, Avendano, and Kawachi, (2014) show that socioeconomic factors like income, level of education, and ethnicity can contribute to the development of a disease. The socio-economic status of this Indian man is that he is poor and this affects him negatively as he feels like he is a burden to his daughter. JC also belongs to the minority ethnic group as Asians only form a small percentage of the American community. As an older adult, JC spiritually believes that he should get medication and on the other hand, he does not want to burden his daughter. JC also tries to maintain his healthy lifestyle by going for a physical exam annually and taking injections monthly as he has gastroesophageal reflux disease, b12 deficiency, chronic prostatitis, and hx of hypertension.

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In building the health history of my patient, I will use cultural assessment guide in finding more information about his practices and beliefs, dietary practices, and other cultural factors that affect him (Hutchinson, Bentzen, & Konig-Zahn, 2000). The following are the questions I will ask JC:

• What approach do you use in taking your medicine?
• What is the process of preparing and consuming food?
• Is there any period that you fast? If yes, which periods?
• Do you feel depressed or sad at times?
• Apart from your daughter, do you have any other family member nearby?

When communicating and asking my patient several questions, I will ensure that I do not look at him directly as he is an elderly individual. I will also be patient with JC in responding to my question and listen carefully to avoid telling him to come up again. Looking at my patient's previous examination, I realized that he had lost a lot of weight and elevated blood pressure. He was also unable to move by himself which makes me believe that his daughter does a lot of job in ensuring that he is okay. From the onlook, JC will not respond to all my questions because he might have found it difficult to confide in me. I will also ask about his literacy and intellect of life control. Therefore, examining this patient using the cultural assessment guide might be complicated.

References

Cultural Competence | National Prevention Information Network. (2015). Retrieved from https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/cultural-competence

Glymour, M. M., Avendano, M., & Kawachi, I. (2014). Socioeconomic status and health. Social epidemiology, 2, 17-63.

Hutchinson, A., Bentzen, N., & Konig-Zahn, C. (2000). Cross-cultural health outcome assessment: a user's guide. European Research Group on Health Outcomes.