Understanding Latinos Cultural Beliefs and Practices: A Culturally Sensitive Nursing Approach for Latino Women Caring for Children with Asthma

Latinos are the largest fastest-growing minority in the United States. Asthma is the most common chronic illness affecting Latino children in the United States. Although asthma has clear guidelines for appropriate care, it is still one of the main causes of morbidity among Latino children. An important reason that might explain the increasing on asthma incidence and mortality among Latino children are lack of culturally appropriate educational programs to promote health maintenance, lack of self-management support, barriers of access, and lack of continuity of care. In addition, typical biases among health care personnel include imposition of “what is best”, ethnocentric view of having the “best answer & decisions”, inappropriate diagnosis due to cultural expressions or behaviors, the devaluation/poor understanding of folk values and practices, and overemphasis of cultural diversity versus cultural similarities. One of the two goals of Healthy People 2010 is to eliminate health disparities. Nurses are the largest group of health care providers capable to incorporate cultural appropriate care into practice. The objective of this research is to use Leininger's theory of culture care diversity and universality (CC theory) as a framework to approach this phenomenon, and to propose an intervention to increase cultural sensitive care for Latinos among nurses. Such an intervention has the purpose of delineating a realistic and culturally appropriate nursing intervention to care for Latino children with asthma using the Leininger's “3 modes of action” strategies: cultural care preservation or maintenance, cultural care accommodation and/or negotiation, and cultural care restructure or repattern.