Free Essay Research on the Cultural Health of New Hannover County in North Carolina

The cultural health needs a diversity of New Hannover County in North Carolina was assessed throughout this project. The project deployed different methods which incorporated various ways of data collection such as interview and shield view survey across the community. Based on the review of secondary material on potential health concerns, the population target was evaluated with respect to demographical data, statistical data, racial distribution and the health requirements across the county. According to the data from New Hannover County, Hispanics record the highest number of obese patients as well as patients who report poor health conditions. Heart disease and stroke were however identified among the top killer diseases in the county's population. Incorporation of the region's demographic data and the identified health risks pointed out some of the common health risks in the population. Therefore, the decision to educate the New Hannover County Hispanics on heart diseases was driven by the high obesity rates and poor health considerations in Hispanics. According to Mozaffarian et al. (2015), the last decade has witnessed a rise in the cases of heart diseases in Hispanics. According to the Office of Minority Health (OMH), 2010 recorded 30% possibilities of Non-Hispanic Blacks dying from heart diseases. Hispanic women reported 60% likeliness of exposure to high blood pressure. Regardless of the prevalence in high blood pressure in Hispanic women, control measures limited control measures are deployed. This project elevates the public knowledge of heart disease, improve education as well as influencing population sensitization and awareness creation on the health needs of Hispanics in New Hannover County. The education program anticipates an attendance of 20 people with the education needs ranging from sensitization on high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and routine check ups for improved health service access.

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Objectives

The increase in heart diseases among Hispanics calls for the need to educate the public on the prevention strategies along with the intervention mechanisms. The primary objective entails definition of heart diseases and the corresponding health diseases. This will provide information to enhance the understanding of the diseases in relation to its effects and population susceptibility. However, the session will highlight the health complications that can be exhibited. The education program will also narrow down to heart attack and stroke as the key heart diseases as well as a twofold approach to address the prevention of heart diseases along with the lifestyle risk behaviors that can be adjusted to reduce the risk factors that influence the risk.

Outcomes

The expected results from the heart disease education session should indicate the success of the education program by the participants amassing valuable information, skills, and behavioral concerns that can aid in the elimination of heart diseases in the population. The program targets 90% participation with a similar success rate. This should provide the heart disease patients with the knowledge to list and identify risk factors applicable to them and the possible prevention strategies. This entails the patients reciting the associated complications, prevention strategies and the behavioral changes that imply their full comprehension of the education program. The main objective of the training program forges for the participants to comprehensively share with the community and the general public facilitating continued education, research, and modification of behavior that can aid in the reduction of heart disease prevalence in the Hispanic population.

Possible Drawbacks

The considerations for the target audience include the literacy level, the population composition in terms of gender, age cultural practices and practices. About 71% of the Hispanic population above the age of 60 exhibit difficulties in using the print media while 80% record difficulties in using charts or forms. The health cultural beliefs and spiritual beliefs on pain and illness are also taken into considerations. Additionally, the dietary requirements along with the food preparation as well as the financial recommendations offer a stand point for health emphasis. The common barriers in the delivery of the education session include the fear of public speaking, lack of experience in engaging the participants in the teaching process, inexperience in presentation delivery and unpreparedness which can be pointed out in lack of enough knowledge in the questions asked. On the other hand, the participants may exhibit low literacy levels in health matters, lack of behavioral change motivation mechanisms for health promotion among the Hispanics. In reference to Health Belief Model (HBM) which highlights motivational factors and outlines the framework for accessing susceptibility, severity, barriers and self-efficacy; information gathering framework, health needs assessment, health concerns, communication on health promotion and skills development and self-efficacy enhancement will be achieved (Esparza-Del Villar et al., 2014). Distractions can hamper the delivery of information to the participants, and therefore elimination of distractions will improve the learning outcome (Esparza-Del Villar et al., 2014). Use of complex medical terms also affects the understanding of the information and therefore avoiding the complex medical terminologies can increase the understanding level in the participants. The presenter, on the other hand, may exhibit limited time, resources and the organizational support in efficiently facilitating the education program.

Teaching strategies

Cultural response approach will be deployed in the instruction's intervention implementation due to the limited literacy levels in health needs in Hispanics. Culturally-responsive approach digs into the learner's knowledge, background diversity, and inclinations to better the education program. The main focus will dwell on imparting relevant knowledge and skill in comparting heart diseases in the aforementioned population. Additionally, the intervention will engage the development of learning activities with reference to the community's health concepts which boosts the confidence and comfortability of the learning process. Cultural response approach will provide for the transfer and sharing of heart disease information in real life application connecting the health and academic responsibility of the education program. The problem of language difficulties can be eliminated by the approach. Most Hispanics struggle in reading and writing English. To effective drive the message home, a translator will be called upon to translate the content into Spanish. The community outreach program will be adopted based on the New Hannover County's Hispanics neighborhood education. Transformative learning theory will be applied to stimulate participants' thinking capacity and improve the relationships among learners. Transformative learning theory engages new perspectives and the underlying topic (Taylor, 2017).

Conclusion

The Hispanic population in the New Hannover County in North Carolina faces various health concerns with the heart diseases standing out dominantly. In addition, the community is underserved limiting its access to health services. Carrying out a five objective education program will impart the knowledge and skills on heart diseases, prevention and behavioral adjustments that can reduce the prevalence of the diseases in the population. Effective education will be achieved by elimination of barriers as well as utilize the transformative learning theory that will engage the participants instilling relevant knowledge in the participants to make decisions on lifestyle adjustments to reduce the heart diseases and enhanced sharing and community teaching through the cultural response approach.

References

Taylor, E. W. (2017). Transformative learning theory. In Transformative Learning Meets Bildung (pp. 17-29). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

Mozaffarian, D., Benjamin, E. J., Go, A. S., Arnett, D. K., Blaha, M. J., Cushman, M., ... & Howard, V. J. (2015). Heart disease and stroke statistics-2016 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation.

Esparza-Del Villar, O. A., Montanez-Alvarado, P., Gutierrez-Vega, M., Carrillo-Saucedo, I. C., Gurrola-Pena, G. M., Ruvalcaba-Romero, N. A.,& Ochoa-Alcaraz, S. G. (2017). Factor structure and internal reliability of an exercise health belief model scale in a Mexican population. BMC public health, 17(1), 229.