Spiritual and Cultural Considerations in Primary Care Assignment

Spiritual and Cultural Considerations in Primary Care - Assignment Example Similar with the Asian American culture, Hispanic American also believe that health can be attained by maintaining balance between the hot and cold and the wet and dry forces. Illness results when God punished Hispanic Americans for their sin, when feeling of susto (fright) occur, when someone throws a mal ojo (evil eye), and envidia (envy)(De Laune, 2006, p. 394). Hispanic Americans used Spanish or Portuguese and other dialects in communication process. They are verbally expressive and used dramatic body language to express emotions and pain. However, Hispanic Americans view direct confrontation and expression of negative feelings as disrespectful. When communicating with a Hispanic American, one can observe the comfort in close proximity, overly tactile communication such as frequent handshakes and enbrace, and the value Hispanic Americans have for the presence of others. Hispanic Americans value modesty and politeness in speaking and are presently oriented. However, time for Hispa nic American is flexible. The role of the family in the primary care might be used in dealing with Hispanic Americans as they prioritize first the need of the families before the individual needs. Nuclear family is the basic unit but highly regarded extended family. Gender roles are also evident in the Hispanic American culture and man performs the role of decision maker and breadwinner while the woman is the home maker and care taker. Review of Literature Healthcare Concerns and Beliefs Health care concerns and beliefs of many Hispanics have affected the predisposing diseases of their race and access to the use of health services. Hispanic diet, lack of health insurance, transportation, culture, and linguistic are some of the identified concerns of most researchers among Hispanics that needs to be addressed. Hispanic dietary preferences differ from other culture. Existing research suggests that Hispanic diet has greater percentage of carbohydrates, protein, and fiber, and lower percentage of total and satura ted fat (Loria, Bush, Carroll, Looker, McDowell, Johnson, &Sempos, 1995, n.p.).Thus, Hispanics are more apt to meet the cholesterol education program. However, majority of the Hispanics suffer from obesity which is one of the most important health problems they are facing today. Aside from dietary preferences, Hispanics also lack sufficient access to health services particularly because of financial, structural, and personal barriers. Lack of health insurance and low income among Hispanics constitute the financial barriers. Structural barriers include proximity and transportation to the health providers and personal barriers include cultural and linguistic factors. In addition, Hispanics are less likely to consult a primary care’s advice primarily because Hispanics believe that having a disease is a punishment from God. For example, a child suddenly has fever after the parents brought the child to the park. Following Hispanic culture, this child was thrown a mal ojo (evil eye ) by a stranger. Hispanics are known for being religious and spiritual-driven. Hispanics belief on God and evil forces are

A management report on preoperative fasting Essay

A management report on preoperative fasting - Essay Example is why it is essential to consider this process from the different viewpoints, through its limitations and weaknesses on the basis of the clinical practices and state policies. Ethical considerations are to be accounted also. In order to clarify all issues and to define the possible solutions for the existing problems in preoperative fasting, it is necessary to look through the principal notions of the preoperative fasting’ process, the guidelines of the royal college of nursing and other related researches, both supporting and denying the benefits of preoperative fasting. The need in preoperative fasting has become evident with understanding that the risk of pulmonary aspiration during the elective surgery may be significantly decreased or eliminated through the application of the preoperative fasting process. It has become a legal requirement for the clinical practices and medical specialists. On the basis of the official statistics the cases of the pulmonary aspiration are very rare (about 1 in 10,000 patients), while the statistics also shows that the majority of the cases in pulmonary aspiration take place in the emergency situation (traumas, for example) when the gastric emptying is delayed (Scarlett et al, 2002); the same statistics relates to the cases of emergency abdominal surgery, etc. This statistics may become supporting evidence that preoperative fasting is an essential process in making the statistical morbidity in elective surgery minimal. The purpose of the existing fasting guidelines is to minimize the gastric contents before electiv e surgery; however the question here arises: how to avoid the unnecessary thirst and dehydration. This is the principal issue in the present research of preoperative fasting, and this issue needs to be addressed on the state level through the development of the new policies in fasting. being expressed in plain words as ‘nothing by mouth after midnight’. However, the question here is – how it is possible to