The quality of nursing care in the Dominican Republic has been subject to extensive research on numerous occasions. In the recent years, the government has been focused on enhancing the quality of maternity care across all the hospitals with the aim of reducing the rate of mortality rate through childbirth. It has attracted the attention of many scholars, especially because the nation is known for its highly trained attendants and universal institutionalized deliveries. The quality of medical care provided varies across the various medical institutions (Schumacher, 2010). In the recent years, the rate of Dominican Republican immigrants into the United States has been on the rise. Therefore, it has become paramount for the American nurses to understand the immigrants and their way of life to be able to overcome widespread implications. This paper will evaluate the implications and space for nursing care in caring for the Dominican Republican immigrants while assessing their various biological variations.
The Dominican Republic has a rich culture. Their culture poses a significant implication for those practicing trans-cultural nursing in the nation. The term trans-cultural nursing refers to the patterns and ways of life adopted by individuals from diverse cultures along with their health care practices. Besides, trans-cultural nursing evaluates the role of nursing in different cultures. In the nursing field, culture has an enormous impact on the people’s willingness to attain medical care or their perception of medical care (Schumacher, 2010). Culture has a substantial influence on the way people make their decisions. The quality of nursing care given greatly relies on how well the nurses know the social care practices and beliefs of the locals.
In the United States, nurses understand that it is paramount for them to grasp the medical and health beliefs of the Dominican Republican immigrants to be able to look out for their health welfare. Most of the Dominican Republicans in the United States have their unique set of beliefs and values touching on illness, disease prevention, and health. Most of these values and beliefs stem from their traditional beliefs and practices. Most of them have greater faith in their traditional health practices than they do in prescribed medicine (Schumacher, 2010). The quality of care given to this demographical group can be enhanced when the nurses provide culturally sensitive care.
Cultural competence in the field of nursing is critical to the provision of high-quality care. Nurses are required to develop an awareness of their personal existence, environment, thoughts, and sensations and at the same time ensure that all these elements do not affect other people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is here where one has to exercise the high understanding of the patient’s culture. Acknowledging and respecting the cultural differences between the patients and the nurses helps establish a harmonious relationship. Like Madeleine Leininger proposed in her theory of trans-cultural nursing, nurses need to exercise culturally sensitive care (Schumacher, 2010).
The primary prevalent deficiencies are those of micronutrients. Most immigrants have often lack micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A, and iodine. Thus, most are diagnosed with medical conditions such as goiter, anemia, and low serum retinol- especially the school going children. In help solve this problem, nurses are compelled to encourage these families to modify their diets and take foods that are richer in the micronutrients they may be lacking (Singer, & Erickson, 2013). For one, it is important for them to consume fortified foods. Such include the iodized salt for goiter, the milk fortified with vitamin D for rickets, iron and vitamins-B enriched foods for fighting anemia, beriberi, and pellagra.
Statistics indicate that the genetic make-up of the Dominican Republican immigrants is highly mixed. To start with, the mulattoes, also known as the mixed race make the largest composition of the group. Mulattoes are mainly a cross of European and African descent. There are also individuals with an American, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean descent. With regards to their susceptibility to diseases, the Dominican Republicans commonly fall ill or suffer from communicable diseases. They are highly prone to acquiring vector-borne diseases and respiratory infections (Estrada‐Veras, Cabrera‐Peña, & Pérez‐Estrella, 2016). The main prevalent infections and diseases include malaria, cholera, and dengue fever. In the Dominican Republic, vaccination remains to be a huge problem. As such, it is important for the nurses in the United States to ensure that the immigrants are well vaccinated.
The mulattoes are a mixture of the indigenous Taino blood and that of the Africans and Europeans. As such, it is common for them to have dark or light skin tones. It can be challenging for a nurse to identify a Dominican Republican immigrant simply by their body size. They have varying body shapes and sizes. Their facial structures are also diverse. The skin textures, hair colors, and the shapes and colors of their eyes are not typical (Nehm, & Budd, 2008). The unique group is the Haitians who are known to have a dark skin tone that has proven to be predominant.
In the nursing field, the level of one’s understanding of another culture will have a profound impact on the quality of care extended. For instance, not knowing the possible health implications that the genetic composition of the Dominican Republicans has could result in inadequate care. Culture is critical since it determines how the patient will respond to the medical council given.
References
Estrada‐Veras, J. I., Cabrera‐Peña, G. A., & Pérez‐Estrella de Ferrán, C. (2016). Medical genetics and genomic medicine in the Dominican Republic: challenges and opportunities. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine, 4(3), 243–256. http://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.224
Nehm, R. H., & Budd, A. F. (2008). Evolutionary stasis and change in the Dominican Republic Neogene. Dordrecht: Springer.
Schumacher, G. (2010). Culture Care Meanings, Beliefs, and Practices in Rural Dominican Republic. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 21(2), 93-103. doi:10.1177/1043659609357635
Singer, M., & Erickson, P. I. (2013). A companion to medical anthropology. Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell.
