Cultural Assessment Interview Report

I typed out most part of the recording, but there are some parts that I am not sure of, so I highlighted it.
I started the essay, but only 1 paragraph. Just make sure to follow the instructions from the professor.

COURSE EBP ASSIGNMENT #1: Cultural Assessment Interview Report

(20% of course grade) 

Students are to complete a cultural assessment on an individual.

The individual should not be a 1stor 2nd degree relative, another family member or household member, a close friend, spouse/partner, or classmate. The individual MUST be from a culture different your own.

Prepare the Cultural Assessment Report which includes:

1)  With the subject’s consent, tape record the interview using your smartphone (no longer than 20 minutes). The subject’s consent to participate should follow your full name, date, location, and with whom you are interviewing. Afterwards, make notes about the interview which should help with the following section of your cultural assessment.

2)  Provide a detailed description of your subject (age, gender, race/ethnicity, religious beliefs/practices, sartorial presentation, mannerisms/behaviors, occupation, family, living situation, etc) along with the environment where the interview was conducted. Your paper should include a vivid and rich description of the subject (2-3 paragraphs). Citations must support your assessment observations, data, and definitions.

3)  Discuss the subject’s cultural views about health and illness (2-3 paragraphs).

Hint: use Purnell’s Model of Cultural Competence to structure & guide interview questions

1. Define and describe the subject’s culture.


2. How does the subject define health & illness from a cultural lens?


3. How does the subject define illness from a cultural lens?


4. What is the evolution and source of knowledge regarding health and illness?


5. Describe and discuss a specific example of a health belief/practice.


6. Describe and discuss a specific example of an illness belief/practice.

*a typed transcription of the recorded interview must be submitted with the paper as an appendix.

4)  Present at least two pertinent findings about the subject’s culture learned during the assessment, e.g. subjective data, objective data (2 paragraphs). Then compare/contrast these findings with your own cultural background (2-3 paragraphs).

5)  Provide at least two interventions (strategies) that would be appropriate for nurses to use when treating clients from this culture. These must be referenced with citations from the healthcare literature, e.g. nursing and/or healthcare journals ONLY from 2014-2018, unless a classic citation. Use 6th Edition APA format for the paper. (2 paragraphs)

6)  Reflect upon your communication style used during the cultural assessment interview, then identify and discuss two apparent strengths during the interview, and two areas that warrant improvement. (1-2 paragraphs).

7)  Conclude your paper with a summary statement of your learning from this assignment.

8) Specifically address psychomotor, cognitive, and affective learning that occurred from completing this assignment.

Purnell’s Model of Cultural Competence for Nursing

Purnell, L. (2002). The Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 193-196

Grading Rubric for EBP Project #1 – Cultural Assessment Interview Report

Student Name: ______________________________________________

Subject: yes yes yes I consent to the cultural assessment.

Me: OK, thanks. I'm going to ask you a few questions. First can you tell me how do you define the health from your cultural of lens?

Subject: My name is Abosede Thomas. I'm from West Africa in Nigeria and from the Yoruba culture, the Yoruba culture with regards to health assessment is something that it's working progress there's a lot of because of there are so many cultures are different in one country with so many ethnic backgrounds. We have different kinds of religious believes there are people who worship thunder and lightning, there are people who worship IN, there are people who are Christians, there are people who are Muslim, and they are people who actually have status that they worship in their bedroom and this been anonymous. I am nurse, a registered nurse and I practiced in Nigeria and I saw a lot of the ill issues tied up with the cultural background in Nigeria. For instance, when a woman is pregnant to have a child and the child dies at birth, when she gets pregnant again, they put marks on that new child hoping that that child does not die again. It's very difficult for nurses to let them know that is not the same child that's coming back, they believe is that the same child does died is now reconnected number 1, number 2 this children this same children are turn Abiku, A-B-I-K-U. a child that keep dying so put in marks on her is to indicate that that child that kind of child are not come back to them, a brand new child will come back to them. Another a problem in women's health is that a woman in my culture Yoruba Y-O-R-U-B-A, when she has a period, It is the husband that keep the date for her, the woman is not allowed to keep a date of period, the husband keeps the date and he is the one that reminds her that when her period is coming, so at time of interview in there in the clinics we see that husbands has to come with the wife because when you ask the wife when was your last period she would turn to her husband who has the date. number 2 family planning is another big issue, because in my culture they don't believe in it, so of this is from old time, I mean more of recent it's changed but most of this is still there. the number of children is dictated by the man so you keep getting pregnant until he says o we done. no no sense of birth control and they're trying to change that with the over population in Africa. Alright so.

Me: OK, so can you tell me how do you define the illness from your culture?

Subject: OK, that term illness in my Yoruba culture is address in a different way, when a child is sick, you know up until now there some people they do that, they don't take the child to the hospital, they take the child to the local doctor who we call babalawo B-A-B-A-L-A-W-O, it is the child it is the babalawo that decides on what herb to put together to heal that child.

Me: Is it similar to Chinese herb?

Subject: in that area, so it is very important this babalawo in each street there's one babalawo that you can run to. For incident, child has seizure and at the time the child is seizing, they take the child to the babalawo and it will take cow’s urine and give to that child.

Me: Dose Babalawo has some kind of like license or something to practice?

Subject: no license, they don't have any license but they are authenticated by the community so it will give, unfortunately when you look at the medicine that is been used even in the English terms it does contain some cows urine to heal seizures, this is what they use cow's urine and they pour it down the throat of that child, and the seizure stops. it does it works it work because I've seen it in local villages but what happen is the toxicity in the liver is the problem. that's what you can’t take up, the liver becomes toxic and that child eventually dies. yes alter recovering from been seizure that you have to deal with the liver issues with toxicity in the liver. Alright, and also when you lose your husband as a woman this shave your head When the husband dies the shave your head, and there some areas in the East, the Igbo I-G-B-O, people they wash the dead body and they use the water to bath the wife, that's still going on today I can show you that online. They beg the wife to do it because many in many instances they suspect that the wife killed their husbands, many when you lose your husband when you young the suspicion is always on the wife, but look at here, when a man dies who is the first one they suspect, when the woman dies, the first person it suspect is your wife or the male or the  husband. Alright, so those are the instances whereby illnesses are treated in a differently.

Me: What kind of role does nutrition play on health from your culture lens?

Subject: Nutrition plays a very important role in treating illnesses in my culture Yoruba, there some foods that the the will avoid while they are sick with a certain illness, for instance when a woman has a period, she must avoid foods that are very high in carbohydrate she will eat more protein as liqiu as they are, they know that protein will replace the blood that the women loses, OK when you are, when you lose your husband, nutrition they stops you, the woman only eat once a day, mainly because they feel like for the loss of your husband you are griffin and you should be fasting, fasting is a common way in my thing, on my culture to deal with issues, issues like this where husband dies you lose a child, that you have to fast sometimes for a whole 30 days, so that they believe that you suffer along with a person that you lost. Now in the another situation if you are an alcoholic they will encourage you, like people who drink too much we all know they don't eat enough, so they will encourage them to eat foods that are high in vitamin B, such as beans, legumes any food that has something with beans, black beans, red beans for people who drink a lot who have alcohol as an illness. Alright.

Me: what kind of communication is exhibited between the healthcare professionals and patients?

Subject: Communication between healthcare professionals and patients in my culture is a little bit difficult, because like I said from the beginning the man holds the power, the woman does not talk much, she is not allowed to talk much about herself. She supposed to allow their husband to express her. OK and this creates problems because what, how do you feel as a woman there some things you as a woman don't tell your husband, but you feel so it creates problem more problem for the healthcare professionals because many times we have to actually visit the home to find out, yeah what is going on, you would not you may not be able to get enough because the woman is not allowed to talk too much or when they get home the man will do what

Me: Is this still happen in here, in America? Like when Nigeria women goes to hospital, the husband is answering all the questions?

Subject: No no no, it doesn’t happen much in America, because the woman just wouldn’t tell you. But we in America, we like for instance me with 50 years of experience as a nurse, I always senses if I meet an African woman who is like that I always make a visit to the home because when she sit down there not talking, that the husband is the only one talking, I immediately know something is wrong they are practicing what they do back home here, there some like that they don't let the wife do what they need to do, they just, you know, they just, they they let them suffer in silence because the man wants to be in control it doesn't happen much here but is still happening back in my country.

Me: Are there any healthcare practices that may different from the ones you are used to in the America?

Subject:  For health practices that are different from my culture to the America, there are many many many ones but me as maternal child health nurse, I noticed that here we use sanitary napkins over there they use towels. We cut towels and the woman use it but the sanitary that is very that is not sanitary, because those towels may also cause infections leading to illnesses like PID pelvic inflammatory disease, OK another practice over there is the practice that when you have and infraction that needs treatment you use the herbs there's a lot of different herbs that they use for headache they have a herb, for you know my grandmother kept a whole list of different plants in her backyard that she will use instead of going to the doctor.

Me: yeah, same as Chinese, Chinses use herb more than the medications

Subject: We use a lot, we don’t us tablets we don't use medications they don't believe in it, if you constipated grandma will go to the backyard and pick up some of the herbs and make a soup she'll make you drink it and before you know it you going to the bathroom, if you have a urinary tract infection they would do the same thing, you know they will take stuff like those cranberries crush them and make you eat them, you know so there's a lot, they also including sexually transmitted diseases which you I know is there they know how to treat it with the herb instead of penicillin VK, yeah they have herb for all that, OK, one of the hearth practice that you didn’t ask me is that the fact that there is what you call polygamy, where come from where a man has many wives so as such illnesses especially sexual transmitted can be transmitted within 4 or 5 wives that belong to 1 man.

Me:  Is there still one man with many wives in your country now?

Subject: they still have it, so in that village that particular community will have all of them will have to take the herbs to get a kill, including the man. so they find out what most of the time with epidemiology we are not able to find the source because there are 5 wives and if one is unfaithful, the rest of them can catch that is what epidemiology is about starting of certain group. So you know it’s very difficult for healthcare professionals.

Me: Thank you very much for sharing all of this with me.