Community Cultural Assessment. The existence of different cultural groups necessitates the development of a community cultural assessment that can establish the needs each group in a fair manner. Without such a tool, it is beyond doubt that provision of cultural-sensitive care is unattainable. As such, to avoid these cultural biases, the utilization of these tools is of the essence.
That is the case given that they will help the healthcare professionals develop appropriate cultural care for and therefore offset the challenge of discriminating any cultural group. In essence, this discussion aims at mainly assessing the culture of the Asian-American community. Moreover, it aims at establishing how the sociocultural factors of the Asian-American persons affect their health care. Lastly, it also focuses on developing primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies that will enhance the chances of having appropriate cultural outcomes. With such revelation, it is undeniable that one is in a pole position to providing a cultural-sensitive care to persons of different cultural background like for this case, Asian-American.
Cultural Assessment Findings of Asian-Americans
Primarily, the Asian-American have a rich vein of culture that is of the essence to understand if one is to attend appropriately to them in the health care system. As such, a study of their culture is a worthwhile experience that inspires a new outlook of how a nurse can reach out to this cultural group.
Community Cultural Assessment
Central to my findings is the fact that the Asian-American have unique perspectives of illnesses causation as compared to their counterparts. For instance, they believe that the cause of illness is due to hot-cold imbalance within the body. Therefore, persons of this cultural group will stop taking a medication perceived hot if they have a feverish disease. Consistent to this finding is the observation by Andrews, and Boyle, (2008, p.280) who noted that Hispanics comply with the hot/cold theories of illness causation.
Also, worth noting from the cultural examination is the fact that persons of Asian origin admit to agreeing to everything they hear from the health care professional. Such is the case even when not understanding the physicians’ directions. A motivator for this behavior is their tendency of culturally refusing a request in a direct manner.
Lastly, from the assessment, it is also evident that the Asian-Americans believe that their lack of language proficiency makes them not understood by the healthcare personnel. The case is even worse given that they express that they are more reluctant to visit the hospitals because of this challenge. As such, it is apparent that their lack of language proficiency heightens their reluctance to visit hospitals.
Principles of Community Cultural Assessment
The cultural assessment entails basic principles that one must observe during the process of establishing the cultural beliefs of an individual about a disease. One fundamental principle is the fact that context in which any culture has developed is of the essence given that cultural practices are responses to a particular human problem (Andrews, & Boyle, 2008, p.280). As such, the cultural assessment needs to establish the context of the culture for the optimization of the understanding that culture.
Secondly, a cultural assessment must also determine the underlying reasons for observed behaviors rather than plainly agreeing to them. The need for establishing the premise is highlighted by the resistance one might face when offering biomedical interventions that are conflicting the health beliefs about disease causation (Andrews, & Boyle, 2008, p.280). For instance, in this case, lack of knowledge on why most Asian-Americans have the contraindication of consuming dairy products and going ahead to recommend milk and related products will face opposition from this cultural group.
According to Andrews, and Boyle, (2008, p.280) another principle of cultural assessment is that the interpretation of meaning and purpose of a particular behavior must take place within the context of the specific culture. Failure to do so may result in an abnormal outlook of other people’s culture causing discrimination.
That said, it is clear making consideration of such principles in cultural assessment tools used is a sure way of overcoming the challenge of offering cultural-insensitive care.
Impact of Sociocultural Factors on Asian-American’s Healthcare
Various socio-cultural aspects are responsible for health care disparity associated with Asian-American. For instance, the low socioeconomic status of the Asian-American persons restricts their access to healthcare services. Additionally, there is a reduction in the availability of health care services given that the lack of money limits the chances of having a health insurance (Yoo, Musselman, Lee, & Yee-Melichar, 2014). Consequently, this reduces their well-being and heightens their vulnerability to illnesses.
Another socio-cultural factor that influences the health care of this cultural group is language. Their lack of knowledge of the English language results hinders their acceptability of the medical interventions. That is the case given that the language used is not similar to theirs and hence they can relate with the healthcare professionals opinions. Moreover, the language barrier also limits the access to healthcare since the individuals avoid seeking health care because they cannot stand the misunderstanding (Kim, & Keefe, 2010).
Finally, the low literacy level of this cultural group also hinders the availability and access to the healthcare services. That is the case given that the low literacy level limits the Asian-American ability to access care for fears of not understanding the doctors’ directions. The availability of health care is also lowered given that these persons, for instance, cannot read posters inviting them for medical screening and therefore fail to turn up (Kim, & Keefe, 2010). As such, this results in a low number of such services in the future.
Prevention Strategies
A primary prevention strategy that may reduce the incidence of osteoporosis development among this cultural group is the use of health education. With this intervention, the nurse must ensure the Asian-American understand the condition and the need for preventing the same (Kling, Clarke, & Sandhu, 2014). Ultimately, this intervention results in a culturally appropriate outcome. A case in point is such outcomes is the adoption of good dietary practices like taking culturally acceptable soy milk in place of dairy products and thereby reducing the development of osteoporosis.
On the other hand, a secondary prevention strategy is the use of screening services to estimate the chances of developing this condition. Central to this approach is a test like bone mineral density that can suggest the predisposition of an individual (Kling, Clarke, & Sandhu, 2014). With such a strategy, the chances of limiting the severity of the osteoporosis are high.
In the tertiary prevention of osteoporosis, a nurse must offer rehabilitation services, which will improve the quality of life of the suffering individuals. A case in point of such interventions is linking the patient to a support group that will enlighten him/her on how to cope with the condition (Kling, Clarke, & Sandhu, 2014).
Conclusion
In closure, the Asian-American is high-risk cultural group given the findings of the cultural assessment. They are more likely to get osteoporosis given the fact that they may shy away from help seeking because they feel misunderstood upon interaction with medical professionals. As such, healthcare personnel need to utilize the cultural assessment findings to inform their plan of care and avoid offering cultural-insensitive care. However, failure to do so will only heighten this challenge.
References
Andrews, M. & Boyle, J. (2008). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (1st ed., p. 280). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Kim, W., & Keefe, R. H. (2010). Barriers to healthcare among Asian Americans. Social Work in Public Health, 25(3-4), 286-295.
Kling, J. M., Clarke, B. L., & Sandhu, N. P. (2014). Osteoporosis prevention, screening, and treatment: a review. Journal of Women’s Health, 23(7), 563-572.
Yoo, G. J., Musselman, E., Lee, Y. S., & Yee-Melichar, D. (2014). Addressing health disparities among older Asian Americans: Data and diversity. Generations, 38(4), 74.
