Every culture has its own health beliefs that attempt to explain what causes illness, how it may be cured or treated, and who should be engaged in treating the condition. Cultural factors significantly influence the degree to which a patient complies with a prescribed treatment plan. As a result, each ethnic group in the world has its ideas on health, illness, treatment, and the people who work in the medical field. Although members of any given cultural group share many common concepts, behaviors, and institutions, there are bound to be a few outliers among them. Beliefs influence, in most situations, how and from whom a person will seek medical attention, how self-care is preserved or maintained, how decisions regarding health care are made, and frequently how a patient reacts to a particular therapy. This paper discusses the Puerto Rican population’s culturally based health care beliefs and practices and the concept learned through this group. It will also discuss how this will enhance your ability to provide competent care to families, individuals, or communities of this culture.
Puerto Rican cultural group, a large number of people from Puerto Rican share a strong legacy that includes family as well as religion or conviction. Every subset of the population comprises individuals who adhere to a unique set of cultural ideas and practices (Mokel et al., 2020). Within this Rican group, people have characteristics that describe their one-of-a-kind uses of language, the roles that families play, the right religion or spirituality ideologies, the definitions of illness and disease, and the use or application of healing and treatment practices in health provision and seeking behaviors.
To identify the notion that I have learnt through this group, based on the strong family ties that exist in Puerto Rico, many of the population patients seeking medical care first had to talk with or seek assistance from family resources (Reyes-Estrada et al., 2018). It is widespread for members of this group of people to involve their families in their health care, and health care providers were strongly advised to encourage such involvement and to include the family as a resource and the focus of care in their health planning, whether it is for individuals or a community. Most Puerto Ricans adhere to the Roman Catholic religion. As a result, the Puerto Rican people’s spirituality and religious beliefs play a significant part in their approach to health care, illness, and everyday life. Hispanic culture viewed women not only as culture-bearers but also as primary caregivers and gatekeepers for the health of their families.
To give competent care to families, individuals, or communities who belong to this culture, you need to understand and consider the role that culture plays in the provision of health care and the elimination of health disparities. This is because specific information on the health beliefs and practices of the Puerto Rican population in the urban city of Philadelphia needs to be uncovered (Purnell 2000). This is the reason why this is important. As a first step in achieving cultural competency, the knowledge must be disseminated to licensed medical professionals in and around the Philadelphia area.
In conclusion, the goal of nursing practice should always be to provide holistic care, often known as care for the whole person. A fundamental component of holistic treatment is the acquisition of knowledge on many aspects of culture, including lifeways and beliefs and behaviors relating to health.
Reference
Mokel, M. J., & Canty, L. (2020). Educational outcomes of an online educational intervention teaching cultural competency to graduate nursing students. Nurse Education in Practice, 46, 102832.
Reyes-Estrada, M., Varas-Díaz, N., Parker, R., Padilla, M., & Rodríguez-Madera, S. (2018). Religion and HIV-related stigma among nurses who work with people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico. Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC), 17, 2325958218773365.
Purnell, L. (2000). A description of the Purnell model for cultural competence. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 11(1), 40-46.
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