THE CULTURE OF THE DOMINICANS 2
. Culture is the thoughts, communications, actions, beliefs, values, and institutions racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups (Jarvis, 2012, p 14). Every culture has its own view/ understanding about health care, health and illnesses. Although what might be seen as acceptable in one culture, may not be acceptable in another, regardless of where you are health care and culture will always exist. My definition of culture is the way someone lives his or her life in a daily basis; which includes things like the language one speaks in and out of the home, food one eats, music one listens to, and one religious practice. The culture I will be writing about is the Dominicans culture from the Dominican Republic.
The primary language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish. Most Dominicans are Roman Catholics, they are often very involved in church activities. Within a Roman Catholic Dominican’s house there are always candles with pictures of saints, each saint represent a special religious function. The flag is their national dish; it is made of white rice and beans which remind people of the flag colors, and stewed meat served with fried plantain and salad. The type of music play are the meringue, bachata, ……
The person I interviewed is a female with the initial K.B. who was born in the Dominican Republic and has been living here in the United States for sixteen years. She is thirty five years old. Her ethnic affiliation is Hispanic. Despite the fact that she is a United States citizen, nonetheless she considers herself more as Dominican than Dominican American. K.B. is very culture oriented with no food preferences. She enjoys eating Dom...
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...omputers and internet. Public libraries and schools also have computers and internet services.
THE CULTURE OF THE DOMICANS 6
Based on the information that was provided by K. B. about her culture, during a health history assessment, I can use the information to analyze her past and present health history. I can use the information that was given regarding religion to assess the way she utilizes her faith to maintain a healthy life. I can also use the information that was provided regarded natural healers to assess her.
In general the way we interact with each other, the way we raise our kids, the way we care for each other; our views and understanding of religion and faith, our views and understanding of western medicine and folks practices are the ways that make culture and health care
The languages of these two ethnic groups are completely different. Dominicans speak Spanish and Afro-Americans speak English. Dominicans don't speak casual Castillan Spanish. They speak Spanish with a twist of African influences. Gleijeses says, "Dominicans don't speak true Spanish, so they are not treated as Spanish” (7). African-Americans speak English with a diffe...
The Dominican Republic was first discovered in the year of 1492 by none other than Christopher Columbus. When Christopher Columbus first sighted what is today known as the Dominican Republic, he told Spain that he found a land that was the “fairest under the sun.” The Dominican Republic is located in between the chain of Caribbean islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico. The island has very favorable climate and gentle winds. With its good mineral wealth, the Dominican Republic was preferred as the early location for Spanish trade, administration in the New World and culture. Christopher Columbus named the Dominican Republic “Espanola” or “Little Spain” to show his love for the island. Today the island is divided into two countries which are the Dominican Republic, which consists of Hispanic, Western, Spanish speaking, population which of whom are mostly white or mulatto. The second country is Haiti, which is French and African Culturally and the population consists of people whom are mostly black. The Dominican Republic has four parallel mountain ranges that run from northwest to southwest that segregate the country into several smaller pieces and also separate the capital of Santo Domingo from the agricultural area and also from the center of the tourist trade area which is located on the northern coast. The mountain ranges are mostly unpopulated and are far less important to the Dominican Republic than the valleys of the cordillera. The Dominican Republic is usually blessed with beautiful weather and temperature and rainfall but the island also contains serious climatic problems such as hurricanes of which left many of its people dead and homeless in the year of 1930. This Hurricane served as a reason or excuse for Dictator R...
"Dominican Migration to the U.S. and the Dominican Family Structure." www.Maccaulay .cuny.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar 2014.
The Dominican Republic or also known as La Republica Dominicana is a small island that is 18,816 square miles, located off the coast of Florida. The Dominicans of this land share their island with the Haitians. The island has a subtropical climate, mountains, rolling hills, and fertile river valleys. The economy is mainly dominated by sugar, which still earns much of the country's foreign exchange despite establishment of varied light industries and the development of nickel, mining and tourism. Coffee, cocoa, tobacco, and bananas are also a major export crop. But, despite their seemingly stable economy, and lush landscaping, a vast majority of the estimated 8,603,200 people that live there wish to migrate to the United States. This may be due to the fact that since the time the Dominican Republic was proclaimed in 1844 as a dictatorship, it has come under the attack of bad political leadership, and civil strife. In 1899 the country was bankrupted by civil strife after the murder of Ulises Heureaux, their dictator. Shortly after that the country came under U.S. control. Even under U.S. control the country still suffered from dictators with highly restrictive policies on leaving the island, and harsh economic conditions. These terrible economic conditions only worsened and caused a gigantic influx of immigrants from the Dominican Republic to the United States in the early 80's and even more in the 90's (Hale-Benson, p. 97). The people came in groves to the United States seeking more opportunities and a better life, but they soon learned that they would face many of the same cultural, racial and ethnic barriers that other ethnic immigrants have faced when seeking a new life in a new land. In this paper I w...
Dominicans’ ethnicity consists of Taino, Spanish and African. The native people on the island were the Taino. The Taino were hunter and gatherers who lived off the land. Led by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquered the island in 1492. The Spanish overtook the Taino forcing them to be their slaves while killing many in the process. The Africans were then later brought to the island as slaves. Certain traits of these ethnic groups are still present in the Dominican culture, such as the food, language, religion and personality of the people (Goodwin, 116).
Going to a different country or area of the world can open up anybody’s eyes to see that culture makes a huge impact on the understanding and practices of healthcare that seem to be so common to other areas of the world. When a person lives in one country their whole life, that person may not realize how different the life they live is from someone in a foreign country. If a person is going to receive treatment from someone with a different cultural background, they should be expected to get treatment to respects their own culture. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences having such a diverse variety of students has their own cultural competency definition that states “effectively and comfortably communicate across cultures with patients of differing backgrounds, taking into account aspects of trust in order to adopt mutually acceptable objectives and measures”. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler, the issue of culture and healthcare are greatly prevalent. Katherine Dettwyler herself goes to West Africa as an anthropologist and her horizons are broadened when during her research she comes in contact with how much culture has an impact on healthcare and everyday life.
Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person recognizes as a health care professional and whom they views as traditional healer, can aid the development of trust and improve the individual’s investment and participation in treatment. Third, our population in the United States is not only growing quickly but also changing, cultural competence will allow us as educators and healthcare workers keep up wi...
Jean Giddens (2013) defines culture as “a pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language, or live in a defined geographical region.” (Giddens, 2013). A person’s culture influences every aspect that person’s life. Beliefs affected by culture include how someone interacts within the family, how to raise children, the types of foods eaten, the style of clothes chosen, which religion is practiced, and the style of communication (including verbal, and body language, slang used etc.) (Giddens, 2013). In addition to these beliefs, health care practices are also affected by culture. The cause
The healthcare’s culture, usually, is similar to the culture of the community it is located in. This is due to fact that healthcare organizations rely on the external factors around them while depending on the market sector in order
An individual’s culture and belief may significantly impact the type of services they require. In addition, it may affect the time, place, and method in the delivery of health care
As nurses entering the medical field understanding the culture of our patients is crucial to proper care. Each culture has their own set of beliefs and values that are shared among groups of people which influences personality, language, lifestyles, house hold, level modesty, social standings, foods, health treatment and identity. Culture affects how people view health and illness; dictating when, where and what type of medical treatment they will receive and who will be their care provider.
Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and patient which in turn improves healing and health.
This assignment will look at the impact of culture in professional practice and how it will affect patients and their needs in nursing. ‘Culture’ refers to the ways in which people in a given society live together and how they communicate with each other (Hendry,2008). The aspects of culture this assignment will look at are religion, language and gender and how nurses develop cultural competency and cultural sensitivity towards their patients.
Lipson, J.G. & Dubble, S.L. (Eds). (2007). Culture & clinical care. San Francisco, California: The Regents, University of California.
To define and discuss cultural care in nursing the definition of culture must first be explored. Culture encompasses many different components. It involves ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, sexual, and health customs to name a few. Culture is something that is personal to everyone and something that must be understood and respected by those in the nursing profession. As we begin to see more and more people from various cultures come into our health system it is important for nurses to look at their own culture values and customs and be aware of any biases that they might have toward groups that are different from their own.