Nursing: Native American, Essay Example

Introduction: Brief description of the community

Native Americans occupy geographic territories within Alaska and Hawaii locations in the American landscape. They consist of numerous tribes classified as the Aleut, Yup’ik, or Inuit peoples. These were the people Christopher Columbus and subsequent explorers discovered.  The founding fathers met Native Americans on this land, whom they later categorized indigenous peoples or Indians.  Culturally, they practiced and to a great extent still engage in traditional medical interventions. Research shows where, especially, the Alaskan Native Americans have very little confidence in the health care system offered to them through affordable care act and other strategies contained in health care reform. Today, they occupy the smallest landscape within the American physical society (Johansen, 2006).

Why the process for community health promotion is important in this particular community (Native Americans).

Traditional medicine is still the main source of health care among Native Americans.  More importantly, they live in areas almost inaccessible by land. Many health care providers spend days travelling to these reservations in order to contact them. When they arrive at  by air time is limited to execution of vaccination programs and brief health screenings. Therefore, the process of community health promotion is essential in this group’s acceptance of projects designed for their perceived health care (Garrett, 2000).

Historically, immense animosity between Native Americans and modern society invaders existed for more than a century as many battles were fought between them while natives tried to keep their land. However, too weak to fight they lost their culture and land to the founding fathers and live as an ostracized community.  Consequently, health promotion processes among Native Americans ought to must embrace more than vaccinations and health screenings. They must encompass emotional health also in eradicating centuries of pain produced by undeserving mal- treatment. Native Americans have their own health goals, which are focused on survival of their species in United States of America. If they cannot  relate to a health promotion process, which truly is geared to enable achievement of this goal the venture is bound to fail (Deloria & Lytle,  2003).         

Explain potential breakdowns or failures that might occur within this community if you do not take a systematic approach with your program.

Potential breakdown or failures are obvious if communicating a health need is not culturally applicable to their belief paradigms. Most Native Americans who live on reservations styli use their medicine man if any illnesses occur. They do not attend a doctor’s clink every month because they cannot afford health care and are uninsured. Culturally, they see a doctor/medicine man only when illness strikes. A health promotion venture educating them concerning seeing a doctor more than once per year is bound to fail because that has not been their culture. Consequently, establishing clinics or recommending an emergency departments with 24 hour doctor’s services would be waste of healthcare dollars because native Americans would not take advantage neither access it (Hendrix, 2014).

Finally, identify potential community and professional partners and explain why they might take an interest in your group’s community program for health promotion for Native Americans.

Potential community and professional partners are leaders of reservations and public health officers who are responsible for health promotion on Native American reservations. They may be interested if funding is available for educating Native Americans within their health care culture about health care practices. If they have knowledge regarding the traditional medicines that are used it would be a useful intervention for these partners to organized the health promotion process tom inculcate both aspects of medicine/health care practices.

Conclusion Explain strategies you might use to engage these  partners in the process of health promotion for Native Americans.

The first strategy is to engage potential professional and community partners in a brain storming activity regarding current health care beliefs and practices among Native Americans. Next would be engaging them in a workshop for making recommendations pertaining to how these beliefs and practices could be inculcated into what is accepted as modern medicine.

References

Deloria, V., & Lytle, C. (2003). American Indians, American justice.  Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Garrett, J.  (2000). Indian health: Values, beliefs, and practices: Minority  Health Resources and Services Administration. Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS Publication No. HRS (P-DV 90-4). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office

Hendrix, L. (2014). Health and Healthcare for American Indian and Alaska Native elders. Retrieved on March 31^st, 2014 from            http://www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger/americanindian.html

Johansen, B. (2006). The Native Peoples of North America. Rutgers University Press