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Heritage Assessment Tool Paper

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Heritage Assessment Tool Paper
Heritage Assessment
In our day to day job as nurses, we come across patients from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It is our duty to make them feel at ease with the care they are receiving and to be able to do so, it is imperative that nurses become culturally competent by understanding how the patients’ culture influences their views on health protection, maintenance and restoration. Culture is a pattern of behavior and values shared by an ethnic group (Winkleman, 2001). The Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) is a guide to understanding the individual’s cultural beliefs in relationship to the biological, social, environmental, spiritual and psychological factors that influence their acceptance and adherence to treatment plan. Cultural heritage is a set of traditions within a culture that is handed down from the older to the younger generation within a family. These traditions influence the family’s decision in relation to their diet, education, day-to-day activities, spiritual beliefs (Christianity, Judaism, Islam or non believers) as well as health traditions. In our household, we raise our children based on our religious and cultural beliefs even though they were born here in the United States. We speak our native language to them on an ongoing basis to ensure that they can communicate with our relatives when we visit them.
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They eat eggs and bread for breakfast on a daily basis which they believe provides their necessary nutrition and ensures that their day starts on a positive footing. The Mercados are Catholics and attend mass every Sunday. After mass, the whole family including Maria’s uncles, aunts and cousins meet at Maria’s parents’ home for brunch. The children will play games at the backyard while the adults sit around and tell

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