I have several friends who come from different cultures both in my workplace and also in the place I local. Generally, Newport News is consist of diverse communities containing people from different cultures and always ready to welcome people from diversified cultures. I have a friend from the African-American Culture who works in one of the Restaurants here whom I arranged an interview with over the weekend. Below are the questions that I asked her and her responses.

Open-Headed Questions

1. I am interested in learning about your cultural heritage. Can you tell me about your cultural group, where you were born, and how long you have lived in this state?

I am a member of African-American Culture. I was born here in America, but my parents told me that they came here as slaves to provide labor. Have grown up here in Newport News and have enjoyed the stay here.

2. What is your cultural belief about illness?

Most of the older adults in our culture believe that the lack of spiritual imbalance may result in physical, mental, acute, or even chronic diseases.

3. What were the common traditional methods used to cure illnesses in your culture?

Several traditional healing methods existed within our culture including witchcraft, utilization of herbs and spices, and even supernatural forces.

4. Does your cultural belief affect your current health care seeking behaviors?

To some extent, I can say yes since sometimes I connect some minor illnesses to supernatural forces. However, I do visit health care facilities when unwell.

5. What kinds of things do you do to maintain health? For example, what types of food do you eat to maintain health?

We strongly believe that taking fresh plant foods such as colorful; vegetables and fruits such as sweet potatoes and yams and also taking grains would keep us healthy.

6. What other activities do you or your family do to keep people healthy (e.g., wearing amulets, religious or spiritual practices)?

We believe that religion is vital; hence believing in God would always keep us healthy. We pray daily and attend religious services at least once a week.

7. What family duties do women and men usually perform in your culture?

Women have believed top undertake all home chores while the men do all difficult tasks to ensure that the family members get all that is needed. Additionally, men usually lead in all religious matters within the family.

8. Whom do you consult when making healthcare decisions (e.g., other family members, cultural or religious leader)?

When making health decision, we consult spiritual; healers, family, and friends. Also, we engage ourselves in prayers for God’s guidance.

9. Who will be able to help you during and after treatment?

After treatment age mate family members and friends of the same gender with the ill individuals usually help them after treatment. However, the elderly of the same gender check up on how one is regularly doing.

10. How do you know when you are healthy?

It’s somehow difficult questions, but generally when not experiencing any pains and mental destructions, one considers themselves healthy within our culture.

Report

The interview was fun, and we both enjoyed it. The interviewee never experienced most of the challenges that are expected in the interview since we have been friends for a long period of time4 hence she had no fear when answering any of the questions that I asked. She was very comfortable and willing to expound more on any answer that she gave. When I asked for any clarifications, she could do it more than I could expect. The interview was more successful since we used to make some fun in between the interview which made the session lively.

Additionally, as an RN I had the chance to provide my interviewee with various health care advances. I prepared him psychologically ion the quality of care that she currently expects when she visits any facility.

Additionally, I had to give her a tip concerning patient safety after we completed the interview a topic that she enjoyed much. She revealed to me that she has many friends who are always worried about the safety of their information after visiting health care facilities.  I went further to explain to her how many facilities have implemented the use of EMR to keep all patients information more secure. Also, I depicted here that the EMR systems have also come to enhance how fast care is provided to patients when they visit hospitals due to easy accessibility of their records.

From the interview, I learned that most Black Americans came to America as slaves. However, most of their family members are currently enjoying their stay here but still practicing their African-American culture. The interview also made me learn that Most African Americans are Christians and strongly believe in supernatural powers which they sometimes accuse of various illnesses. I am not certain how this works out but what I believe is that when once experiences any form of illness, they need to seek medical attention from healthcare professionals. I was also able to learn that there are several traditional healing methods that people from African-American culture used to cure their various illnesses (Meyers, 2017). The type of methods to be used was selected once the cause of the illness is known. From my interviewee and personal experiences, I learned that our cultural background practices about illness and healing methods usually affect our current healthy seeking behaviors. I do think we need always to seek medical attention regardless of any strong cultural belief. One thing I noted is that most of us do not understand the cause of the various illnesses that affect us which makes us associate the illnesses with various cultural beliefs. Therefore, I highly recommend that we always first understand the cause of the illness before making any decision on the type of healthcare intervention to seek.

From the interview, I learned that African-American culture usually strongly beliefs that eating certain foods could make them healthy. I highly support this since we also encourage the patients who visit our facility to eats a balanced diet which could help improve their health status as well as keeping them healthy once they have recovered from their illness (Costly, n.d.). Also, I think that eating a healthy/balanced diet should come hand to hand with doing exercises which could help prevent the patient from certain illnesses.

The interview also made me learn that the African-American culture strongly believes in the existence of God and that daily praying swell as attending religious service once in a week could help keep them healthy. They believed that doing against what their faith advocated for could call for punishment from Food which could in most cases be in the form of illness. Additionally, before seeking any other medical interventions, individuals African-American culture involves themselves in prayers every time any illness arises to see if the illness could be connected to spiritual matters.

Next, the interview made me learn that there were specific tasks for men and women in the African-American culture. Men were engaged in the duties that were considered to be so much demanding while women were left to undertake the house chores only. In African-American culture, men were considered to be family providers. After receiving any form of treatme4nt, the patient is helped by their age-mate family members or colleagues (XXXXX, n.d.). However, the patient is always under the watch of an elderly family member of the same gender until full recovery. The most amazing thing with the African-American culture is that when they are not suffering from any pain, any mental destructions and when spiritually nourished, they consider themselves to be healthy.

I can precisely point out that we both benefited from the interview. My interviewee was able to gain precise knowledge of how she can receive the desired and quality care from the hospitals that she decides to attend. On the other hand, I was able to gain more knowledge concerning African-American culture in aspects connected to health care. As an RN I will be able to precisely use all the knowledge that I gained from the interview to offer quality care to all patients from the African-American culture. I am, now in the position to provide culture advice to patients from African American culture once they attend our facility.

References

Blais, K., Hayes, J. S. Professional Nursing Practice: Concepts and Perspectives. [ECPI]. Retrieved from https://ecpi.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323587355/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Costly, A. (n.d.). An Overview of the African-American Experience. Retrieved from http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/an-overview-of-the-african-american-experience

Meyers, M. A. (2017). Art, Education, and African-American Culture: Albert Barnes and the Science of Philanthropy. Routledge.

XXXXX. (n.d.). African American Culture: The history of African Americans. Retrieved from http://www.myblackhistory.net/Culture.htm