Heritage Assessment Paper Essay Example

In evaluating the Heritage Assessment Tool (HAT) two things became immediately obvious. First, the questions provided a fair outline and structure for identifying factors of culture, religion, tradition and environment and how they may influence the subject family’s approach to health maintenance and health restoration. And second, that the medical professional using the HAT must be aware of and sensitive to the scrutinizing nature of the questions and what defensive and evasive responses they may invoke. While conducting these family interviews, I noticed even when asking the questions of my own family that they were not immune to this scrutiny affect. As such, when interviewing the other two families, I was very attentive to them and avoided inducing a defensive and/or evasive response by allowing them to be conversive, telling me of fond memories of family members, memorable events and childhood experiences that had nothing to do with the HAT assessment. This made the interview considerably longer, but the answers acquired were much more in depth and accurately provided without any need to minimize or avoid.

Interviewing my own family was probably the most challenging in terms of acquiring historical answers because we are the epitome of the present and future American family. Only minimal contact is maintained with extended family, and because of family disputes in the past, most of them are estranged. Although Christmas is celebrated in our home, it is not so much a religious holiday in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ as it is a time to remember good will to our fellow man and peace on earth. We do not attend church of any kind although my husband and I both had Christian influence from our parents as we grew up. Since my husband and I have advanced educations in the sciences, we respond to health care on both a preventative and a restorative basis with science. When the weather gets cold we think in terms of avoiding the common germ