The Heritage Assessment device is considered to “give nurses an understanding of the patient’s traditional health and illness beliefs and practices so that culturally appropriate interventions can be initiated. The tool is a series of twenty nine questions. These twenty nine questions are designed to determine a patient’s ethnic, cultural, and religious background, “For example, “Hispanic culture combines religion with a strong belief in spirituality and the supernatural. Saints represent many specialized needs and there are specific ones for cancer, dying, and bodily ills. These spiritual and religious influences play an important role in their health, illness, and daily life”. The United States is home for diverse culture. Culture is defined as “the learned, shared, and transmitted values, beliefs, norms, and lifeway practices of a particular group that guide thinking, decisions, and actions in patterned ways” “Cultural competence refers to the ability of nurses to understand and accept the cultural backgrounds of individuals and provide care that best meets the persons’ needs—not the nurses’ needs” In some strict Islamic societies where girls and women are segregated and allowed to appear in public only if totally covered from head to toe, deprivation of sunlight can impair the cutaneous synthesis of vitamin D, causing a deficiency of this vitamin and putting the women at risk for rickets or osteomalacia”. “Knowledge and respect for various cultural world views, customs, values, and traditions are needed to negotiate different approaches in developing a health-promotion plan with families”. Cultural care is a comprehensive model based on one’s believes and practices.
“These rituals and healing
References: Askim-Lovseth, M., & Aldana, A. (2010). Looking beyond "affordable" health care: cultural understanding and sensitivity-necessities in addressing the health care disparities of the U.S. Hispanic population. Health Marketing Quarterly. Retrieved from