Multicultural End-of-Life Care : Dying and Diversity : Cultural Assessment in a Health Care Setting

ASSESSMENT ELEMENT #1: The cultural identity of the individual.

• how the person identifies him/herself
• the degree of acculturation
• how close is the person to the native culture or to the host culture
• language preferences

ASSESSMENT ELEMENT #2: The cultural factors relate to the person's psychosocial environment

• stressors in the local environment
• role of religion
• support systems
  

ASSESSMENT ELEMENT #3: The cultural elements of the relationship between the individual and the health care provider (hcp)

• differences between the hcp and individual's culture and social status
• the impact of these differences in communication and in negotiating an appropriate relationship

• identify predominant idioms of distress through which a need for support is communicated (e.g. ataque de nervios, possessing spirits, nerves, mal de ojo)
• any local illness category used by the individual's family and/or community to identify the condition.
• individual's explanatory model: In order for the care to be patient centered, no matter what the culture of the patient is, the practitioner has to elicit specific information from the patient to help the practitioner to organize the strategies for clinical care. (For more information about explanatory models see Arthur Kleinman's The illness narratives: Suffering, healing and the human condition. Basic Books, Inc.)

[ Go Up ]