Basic Assessment of a Cuban American I was born and raised in the United States; however, my upbringing was in a Hispanic environment, Cuban culture specifically. Although, knowing the language, beliefs, views, superstitions, traditions, food and music preferences. Even I have come across barriers when taking care of a Cuban –American patient in the emergency room. First, the students will know, to expect a crowd; you will have the whole family, including grandparents, aunt/uncles, mother/father, at the bedside. In the Cuban family, the male role is often the authority of the family while the female role is holding the family together, keeping, and passing cultural tradition to the next generation. Nonetheless, expect the older members
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If the patient does not speak English, you make sure through an interpreter if he/she wants the information discussed with family present. For personal issues, use same gender interpreter, especially in the older population not raised here. In addition, the women of this culture usually like to be assist by another female member of the family. When it comes to informed consent, in some situation with elderly patient, the children usually are the ones making the decisions. For instance, when taking care of an elderly patient diagnosed with Cancer, he was not aware, because the family decided not to tell him. This is a very gray area, especially if the patient does not have dementia, but they feel they are protecting them.
A Cuban patient usually seeks health assistance, if the home remedies used at home has not improved his/her symptoms. Mostly occurs in the elderly population, if feeling ill they usually seek help and/or treatment from Curanderos, herbalist or Santeros. For instance, once I had a patient in ICU on mechanical ventilation , when the family request a Santeria ritual perform in the room by the uncle ( a palero) to help her get better. Surprisingly, he was granted permission we closed the curtains, and he proceeded with the ceremony.
In keeping with cultural competency, we all must keep an open and unbiased frame of mind if we want to succeed in helping patient with various cultural
If the patient does not speak English, you make sure through an interpreter if he/she wants the information discussed with family present. For personal issues, use same gender interpreter, especially in the older population not raised here. In addition, the women of this culture usually like to be assist by another female member of the family. When it comes to informed consent, in some situation with elderly patient, the children usually are the ones making the decisions. For instance, when taking care of an elderly patient diagnosed with Cancer, he was not aware, because the family decided not to tell him. This is a very gray area, especially if the patient does not have dementia, but they feel they are protecting them.
A Cuban patient usually seeks health assistance, if the home remedies used at home has not improved his/her symptoms. Mostly occurs in the elderly population, if feeling ill they usually seek help and/or treatment from Curanderos, herbalist or Santeros. For instance, once I had a patient in ICU on mechanical ventilation , when the family request a Santeria ritual perform in the room by the uncle ( a palero) to help her get better. Surprisingly, he was granted permission we closed the curtains, and he proceeded with the ceremony.
In keeping with cultural competency, we all must keep an open and unbiased frame of mind if we want to succeed in helping patient with various cultural