Discuss how cultural and religious or spiritual beliefs and practices may influence compliance with prescribed treatment regimens for each group.

For a literature search to be successful, I first narrowed down my target population. Then I determined that I would investigate cultural and religious beliefs and/or spiritual beliefs in both African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. From there, I used available research databases to find scholarly articles related to this topic by using terms such as “cultural practices,” “religious beliefs,” and “healthcare regimens” paired with either African Americans or Mexican Americans. Although there were many results, only the most recent five years of publications were relevant to my needs.

These articles reveal that both sides view doctors with suspicion because of their past experiences of being exploited in the medical setting. African American patients favor holistic care and prefer noninvasive treatments with little disruption to their lives. Kiger, et.al. (2018) found that cultural distrust towards healthcare institutions is partly responsible for communication issues between African American patients. On the other hand, Mexican Americans generally have a collectivistic culture whereby family members may take on decision making roles for medical treatment plans rather than leaving it solely up to individual preferences (Reyes & Winstead‐Fry, 2018). Generally speaking both groups hold traditionally held religious concepts which can influence decisions regarding undergoing certain treatments—such as whether or not birth control measures should be taken—and how one views death when it comes time for end-of-life conversations (Escoffery et al., 2014; Ramos & Clements, 2017).

This is especially important for me as I am considering my next advanced nursing position. It provides valuable insights into how patient care outcomes are affected by the cultural diversity of different Americans. It’s essential that nurses understand these differences so they can make educated assumptions concerning patient preferences while being able to effectively communicate insights into realistic expectations regarding prognosis when discussing issues like pain management or hospice options near end of life scenarios. Understanding these nuances are paramount since manual assessment alone cannot always yield satisfying explanations about why certain compliance issues arise during delivery of treatment plans for any given patient group (Alghamdi & Beyea , 2016).
Excellent job! You identified two culturally diverse population groups you wanted to explore – African-Americans and Mexican Americans – then conducted searches using important keywords such as “cultural practices” “religious beliefs” and “healthcare regimens” while limiting your sources only ones published within the last 5 years. What strategies do you suggest others use if they’re having difficulty coming up with appropriate keywords?