By, Genethia Guerrero
Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V Family Health Promotion
04/17/2011
Jose Alejandro
Every individual has a cultural heritage. Each culture views the world differently. Culture is an inherited characteristic and includes knowledge, beliefs, customs, skills, likes and dislikes. The fundamental role of cultural heritage is uniting, respecting the diversities and brings people together to face the future by informing, perceiving and give importance to the understanding of the past (need a reference) Heritage assessment tool was introduced for collecting information about different cultures, nationalities and build cultural competencies among health care professionals. It is used to investigate a given population or ethnic group. The tool helps to perform a heritage assessment depending on how deeply the person identify and answers the questions and is helpful in setting the stage for understanding the health traditions of the person. The greater the number of the positive responses shows the person’s greater identification with traditional heritage. (Spector 365) As I compare the differences in health traditions between three different families. I’ve noticed there were some similarities and some differences. Coming from two different cultural back grounds, health beliefs and practices were different. Hispanics are far more emotionally expressive. They expect to be pampered when ill; it is one way the family shows love and concern. This is a present oriented society, and as such they may neglect preventive health care, and may also show up late, or not at all, for appointments.
Most Hispanics are Catholics, and birth control methods other than rhythm are unacceptable.
Most Latin Americans see thinness as a problem and plumpness as the ideal. Advice that a patient loses weight might not be followed because it would create a negative body image.
Hispanics are not accustomed to the profession of social
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