Transcultural Concepts in Nursing Care

Evidence-Based Practice 11-4

11-4 What Matters Most to Older Chinese Adults (continued)

had never got to do before: dancing, cooking, and learning English.”

outcomes both physically and mentally, thus de creasing morbidities. ●● Older clients should be assisted to incorporate a person-centered culturally congruent approach. For example, health information needs to be in the Chinese language and ideally healthcare providers fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese would be available at health facilities. ●● Nurses and other healthcare providers should develop an understanding that most immigrants have a desire to integrate into the new society, but they need the culturally familiar tools to as sist them to access and use a complex health care system.

Second, family members, churches, employ ers, and community worksites need to be involved in supporting health promotion/education pro grams using networks that already exist. For example, a health education program about the importance of having a routine screening such as a mammography can be established at a work site that employs mostly women. A display could be set up in the cafeteria, dining room, or other accessible site. Women could view the educational material during breaks or after lunch. Providing information about sites where women could obtain a mammography would be an important component of such a program. Third, health messages are more readily accepted if they do not conflict with existing cultural beliefs. A nurse who plans to talk about prevention of teenage pregnancy to parents and adolescents at a local church, should be sensitive to the group’s religious values and norms. The nurse could discuss these plans in advance with some of the parents and the church leaders and ask for Clinical Implications ●● Helping older clients maintain some element of their country of origin while facing the diffi cult challenges in a new country builds a sense of resilience and willingness to face on-going challenges. Listening and asking about their previous experiences is very important to older clients. The strong sense of hope for health, se curity, and relationships demonstrated a sense of well-being that should be encouraged by health professionals. ●● Older clients wish to linguistically understand the new healthcare system and how to maxi mize and maintain health. Confidence in access ing and using healthcare leads to better quality

Reference : Shan Choi, L. L., Jung, P., & Zang, K. (2022). What mat ters most to older Chinese adults. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 33 (2), 169–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/10436596211053655

ways to strengthen the church’s position, such as the support of abstinence programs. This is the time to be sensitive to the group’s religious values. Fourth, language barriers and cultural differ ences can present challenges to healthcare pro viders. For example, in the United States–Mexico border areas, promotoras (community health work ers) are used to disseminate messages in Spanish and to help organize and present information that is culturally appropriate and understood by com munity members (Cummins, 2020; McEwen et al., 2015). Many Native American tribes make use of community health representatives to assist indi viduals to improve their health and/or access care. (Prue-Owens, 2021a, 2021b). The healthcare pro fessional should ask for help and suggestions in finding suitable educational material such as bro chures or videos in the appropriate language and with a culturally acceptable message. Last, cultural sensitivity , the ability to be aware of the needs and emotions of others, is essential to meeting health needs. HIV/AIDS is

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