Ethnicity in Nursing - Essay Example

"Ethnicity in Nursing" is a good example of a paper on care.
A person’s origin has a considerable effect on their everyday life and in most cases; it contributes to the successes and failures one encounters in life. In Medicare and nursing, ethnicity plays a key role in how people respond to medication and their mortality rate. Some cultures insist on people taking herbal medicine or strengthening their bodies to fight pathogens. Certain communities believe that seeking medical help is a sign of weakness; therefore, they keep their families off hospitals or any other form of health care. Most of these naïve ideas have been abolished and people are appreciating the health care facilities more and more. However, the level at which one takes doctors’ advice or the willingness to open up to nurses in case of a health crisis is still tied to ethnic habits and cultural aspects.

Hispanic people for instance are believed to have a lower mortality rate as compared to whites. Researchers have come up with many theories as to why this is so, one being the fact that they are involved in more physical work than the whites are, which gives them a way out of weight-related illnesses. Other scholars argue that Hispanic people have a low tendency of taking alcohol and other drugs as well as engaging in smoking. These are some of the ideas as to why they have a low mortality rate (Bzostek, 2007).

Bzostek and his fellow researchers however have a theory that Hispanic people have a high rate of health problems than their white counterparts. According to their article, these scholars argue that many health issues due to three main issues including their language mixture problems, low education, and income as well as intense emotional problems face the Hispanic community. The translation of Spanish to English and vice versa mixes things up which affects nurse-patient communication. Additionally, poor educational levels and low-income levels affect their level of response to treatment and home care programs. Racism even though at a manageable level in the current world still possesses some level of impact on a person’s self-esteem and emotional stability. The Hispanic people being in the larger group of the non-white people tend to suffer emotional related problems due to this fact, hence their high levels of health problems as compared to the whites (Bzostek, 2007).

Understanding these disparities is of importance to advanced practice nurses in the sense that they are the people who deal with patients at a personal level. Nurses can use this information to plan and resolve the problem of poor health among Hispanic people. Additionally, those involved in advanced practice nursing can ensure that people who can clearly understand the native language handle the Hispanic people to ensure that they are well served and understood In a more general aspect, understanding different cultures and ethnic groups is necessary for the entire nursing program (Bzostek, 2007). This is because nursing is more of a relationship between the patient and the emotional support serves as a better treatment than the medication.