The Influence Of Health And Illness Beliefs On Assessment Process

Running Head: INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT

PROCESS 1

The Influence of Health and Illness Beliefs on Assessment Process

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INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT PROCESS 2

The Influence of Health and Illness Beliefs on Assessment Process

The role of a nurse in health institutions is unrivaled. In particular, nurses play a crucial

role from the face to face interaction during health assessments with the patient up to and after

the discharge. As noted by Dayer-Berenson (2014), a culturally competent nursing health

assessment determines a plan of care by recognizing essential needs of the patient and methods

of addressing the needs. However, just as registered nurses (RNs) possess own values and

cultural beliefs, affecting in their practices that the patients may also maintain essential values is

essential in health assessments. Across the globe and the United States immigrants are imminent

with assimilation evident making the country a multicultural place with the appreciation of

various ethnocultural societies (Napier et al., 2014).

Because of the diversity in the USA, it is thus vital that nurses should focus on the

provision of culturally sensitive patient care and education. Notably, by understanding one's

values and beliefs, there is the apparent success in needs assessment and solving the issues using

the available the healthcare system or a skilled nursing facility. According to Registered

Nursing.Org (2017), it is essential for nurses' to incorporate cultural demands into nursing

practice. This consideration is a necessity in providing customized and person-specific care that

is appropriate to their needs.

The existence of many cultures thus depicts the notion that nurses have a hard task of

knowing and learning the dynamic and distinct beliefs and customs of all local Americans and

international people. In essence, learning everything about each people's multiple cultures is

impractical thus calling for a well-articulated nursing health assessment tool that meets the needs

of all people despite beliefs and values in the culture assessment scope (Dayer-Berenson, 2014).

The nurse must assess the client's and family member's ideologies, values, beliefs and cultural

INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT PROCESS 3

background as well as the current preferences and needs (Hardy, 2016). Once this needs and

concerns have gotten identified, the nurse is thus supposed to adjust the plan of care based on the

responses and first initial assessment about the client and the family history (Registered

Nursing.Org, 2017).). This is important as the culture has a significant influence the overall

perceptions of health, sickness, and death, attitude towards the cause illness. One patient may

prefer to home therapy and prayer as opposed to being injected with needles.

In assessing the patient, the belief structure has various impacts on how the client

responds to an assessment questions. It is thus key in the cultural assessment to fully determine

how deep the patient is in their distinctive traditional culture before taking next actions (Hardy,

2016). Thus, the overall extent a given admitted patient’s level of cultural embeddedness impacts

on the entire healthcare assessment and teaching plan designed for implementation. It is hence

essential to pose questions to the patient that helps depict his or her cultural stand. In essence,

with the cultural values and moral issues solved, there is the ease of trouble in providing the right

interventions without objectives. A nurse may ask: As you are unwell, any views on what may

have caused your condition? Or Are there any reasons why your sickness started? Or ask: What

medication or treatment do you prefer for your state? Or lastly, ask; Any aspects of your disease

that scares you the most?

The responses to the questions asked by a nurse will thus help determine if the patient has

any cultural backing and ideologies that may affect the care plan. From the answers and data

collected, the nurse, therefore, shifts to more specific types of questions aligned to the cultural

positioning of the patient (Hardy, 2016 and Registered Nurisng.Org, 2017). After the interview

with the male or female patient, collected data from the cultural assessment thus helps the patient

as well as the attending RN in the formulation of a mutually satisfactory, culturally receptive

INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT PROCESS 4

treatment and care plan (Napier et al., 2014). Although the beliefs in health and illness may seem

like an overstated idea in healthcare cultural assessment, it is a vital aspect as depicting the right

to the cultural values, ethics, beliefs and practice of the patients. In essence, as a nurse aiming to

deliver stress-free and tussle free patient care, understanding the cultural factors is essential

during the health assessment procedures.

From the assessments, the culture is thus noted to influence the physical nature and

activities of the patient with some preferring certain types of care like therapy, spirituality or

meditation, and yoga as opposed to drugs or seeing a doctor. It is critical to identify as well as

respect the beliefs of patients in the provision of a culturally competent care for useful services

(Napier et al., 2014). Similarly, where information on the cultural values of the patient differs

with those of a nurse, it is crucial to remain nonjudgmental and focus on the patient.

INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS BELIEFS ON ASSESSMENT PROCESS 5

References

Dayer-Berenson, L. (2014). Cultural competencies for nurses: Impact on health and illness.

Burlington, Mass: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Hardy, Y. (2016). Patient assessment in pharmacy: A culturally competent approach.

Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Napier, A. D., Ancarno, C., Butler, B., Calabrese, J., Chater, A., Chatterjee, H., ... & Macdonald,

A. (2014). Culture and health. The Lancet, 384(9954), 1607-1639.

Registered Nursing.Org (2017). Cultural Awareness and Influences on Health: NCLEX-RN.

Registered Nursing.Org. Retrieved from

https://www.registerednursing.org/nclex/cultural-awareness-influences-health/

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