Cultural competencies is a term that has long saturated the healthcare world, especially nursing. The United States has become a melting pot of culture and ethnicity and to practice in the hospital setting it is essential to know the backgrounds of your patients and their families. Different cultures have different perceptions on health and illness. Providing culturally competent care includes knowledge about subcultures, attitudes, and skills that’s supports caring for people across international differences, including language barriers. Using a heritage assessment tool, you can reliably determine the needs of your patients based on cultural influences; It will help you assess the needs of the patient, how to go about your health promotion teaching, and protection and restoration of individual cultural beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the Hispanic, European, Asian cultures, and the author’s own personal cultural influences. The objectives are to identify with different families and determine the needs of the individual based on the heritage assessment.
Healthcare providers need to understand their own cultural practices in order to relate to their patients. That being said, my family was first evaluated using the heritage assessment tool. I identify my family as American, with traditional American values and primarily speaking the English language. My family consisted of two parents, who divorced, and one sister. My parents both worked outside the home and had a college education. I spent extra time with my grandparents and other family members on the weekend. I regularly attended public school. My mother and father were both raised in Texas, and all their family resided within the same county. We grew up in a suburban setting and celebrate Christian holidays and regularly attended church. As far as health maintenance is concerned, we regularly had medical check-ups with a family care practitioner, and were