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2 pages/≈550 words
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3 Sources
Style:
APA
Subject:
Health, Medicine, Nursing
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Essay
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

The Influence of Culture and Genetics on Health

Essay Instructions:

The Influence of Culture and Genetics on Health
As noted by each expert in this week's media, the family plays a significant role in health decisions made by the individual family member. Family values, culture, religious beliefs, and dynamics often impact the individual's health choices and outcomes, and may affect the nurse' s ability to provide appropriate care. This connection between individuals within the family should be considered by the community health nurse. By recognizing the family dynamics, listening, and conducting informal assessments of family members, the BSN-prepared nurse has the opportunity to have a positive influence on the health of not only the individual family member, but on the family as a unit. As Christina Lee mentioned in the media presentation, community health nurses often have the opportunity to educate family members about their own health while visiting in the home. She stressed the importance of providing culturally competent nursing care in building trust with the family.
Culture, race, and ethnicity significantly influence communication and health choices. As Dr. Rachel Smith noted, even gestures have different meaning depending on culture. When working with families, nurses need to consider a broad spectrum of issues as they provide professional nursing care.
With these thoughts in mind, read the following case study and then respond to the questions.
A Native American family of four lives in a trailer park outside of Tallahassee, Florida. The father is a construction worker and works 12-hour shifts, relaxing at the end of the day with a few cold beers. The mother works part-time at a gas station until late afternoon. The two children, ages 9 and 12, eat breakfast and lunch through the free meal program at their school, and attend a free community outreach-tutoring program during the week. They stay with their maternal grandmother on weekends while the parents work. The grandmother suffers from diabetes, Their paternal grandfather passed away 6 years ago from pancreatic cancer. Both parents smoke.
You are conducting a home visit with this family. Answer the following questions:
1-----How might the family's culture and genetic history influence your communication and approach in addressing their health risks?
2----How would you build trust with the family before and during the visit?
Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature.

Essay Sample Content Preview:
The Influence of Culture and Genetics on Health
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The Influence of Culture and Genetics on Health
Nursing professionals are individuals who are culturally unique and they subscribe to nursing and healthcare cultures in addition to their own culturally learned viewpoints and assumptions. In the same way, their patients have cultural preferences and attitudes that might differ with those of the nurse practitioner or the healthcare culture. To deliver compassionate and competent patient care, nursing professionals should be aware of cultural differences (Flowers, 2012). Basing upon the case study, this paper discusses how the Native American family’s culture and genetic history influence the nurse’s communication and approach to addressing this family’s health risks. Furthermore, this paper describes how the nurse would build trust with this family prior to and during the visit.
Native American’s family culture and genetic history
The culture and genetic history of the Native American family influences the nurse’s communication and approach in addressing their health risks. This is because the communication and approach to addressing the health risks should include and adapt to the family’s unique cultural traditions, values, beliefs, practices and perceptions as this would improve the family’s health outcomes, care satisfaction, as well as quality of care. If culturally competent nursing care is implemented carefully, inappropriate or poor care and misunderstandings are eradicated (DeRosa & Kochurka, 2010). The beliefs, attitudes, values, emotions, feelings and circumstances of the patient or family must have equivalent or even sometimes greater significance for the nursing practitioner than the symptoms or physical signs of the patient. Any emotions and/or of the patient should be acknowledged and addressed as this would enhance communication.
The nurse should provide care within the context of the family/patient’s beliefs and culture and respect cultural differences (Huber, 2010). Furthermore, the family’s genetic history and culture influences the nurse’s communication and approach in addressing their health risks since the nurse would need mindful intercultural communications which avoid stereotyping. If the values of the nurse and those of the patient/family are in conflict, the nurse should remain true to her personal value...
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