In my practice, I take care of a large Hispanic/Latino population. I truly enjoy learning more about this culture, especially because most often times it gives me the opportunity to use my Spanish skills. Some of the challenges I face when caring for this population include language barriers, cultural needs, understanding health concerns, and providing education. Steps that I’ve taken to provide the best outcomes for my clients are the use of an interpreter for assessment of mom/baby, administering medications, assistance with breastfeeding and important aftercare instructions. Even those families that may not need an interpreter, still pose some challenges with providing care. Depending on the type of birth whether it was a c-section or a vaginal birth that involved a repair could have a significant effect on how the mother rates her pain. Hispanic/Latino mothers are not shy and pretty vocal about pain (Weber & Kelley, 2018). They also tend to rate their pain higher on a scale from 1-10 especially after a c-section.
I know that I have to be sensitive to this and make sure to keep their pain under control. In addition to pain medication I offer non-pharmacological choices to assist with their discomfort and try to support their cultural needs to incorporate cold and heat by offering cooling products, ice, and/or a heating pad. I have come across many mothers who quickly want to stop breastfeeding and start bottle feeding because they perceive their milk supply to be too low and that baby is not getting enough to eat, eat. I try to educate mom about the small size of their infant’s tummy. I encourage them to continue and incorporate the use of a breast pump and how their colostrum is essentially liquid gold even if they only get drops at first. I support their decision to supplement with bottle feeding if that is the mother’s choice but still encourage them to try the breast first if breastfeeding was their original goal.
I also find that many have health correlations to hot and cold which may relate to the food that they will or won’t eat, the type of comfort they will accept or may effect how they care for their baby, such as wrapping/covering them up with extra blankets because they believe they will catch cold (Weber & Kelley, 2018). According to (Duzinski et al., 2013), infants of Hispanic decent are more likely to suffocate in their sleep than any other ethnicity. These examples pose challenges to how I approach mom/family both respectively and efficiently for both educational purposes and ensuring the safety of the infant. I like to break the ice with my Spanish speaking clients by using some Spanish when communicating with them because I feel it not only builds trust and rapport but often leads to a more open relationship with mom and her willingness to accept the care and education I provide. \
Since I am not fluent in Spanish, nor am I trained to interpret, I always use an interpreter when providing care to ensure my clients completely understand what my assessment entails and so I can both get accurate subjective/objective data from them as well as answer all of their questions fully. I also try to make sure all reading materials including the menu, mom/baby booklet of information/resources, aftercare instructions, and discharge paperwork are available in Spanish and provided if needed. If I learn that one of my patients has spiritual or religious needs that need to be addressed or if I have patients whose infant is in NICU or parents that have experienced a fetal demise, I always offer to make a referral to our Chaplain services and let the patient know that we have a chapel down the hall from the unit that is available to them.
Duzinski, S., Yuma-Guerrero, P., Fung, A., Brown, J., Wheeler, T., Barczyk, A., & Lawson, K., (2013). Sleep behaviors of infants and young children. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 20(4), 189-198.
Weber, J.R., & Kelley, J.H. (2018). Health assessment in nursing (6th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
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