MSN-FP6618 Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

Introduction

Coordination of healthcare in a multicultural environment is challenging for healthcare workers considering the unique beliefs and customs for every individual. The challenges in delivering care to a culturally-diverse society may hinder delivering quality care. For instance, healthcare professionals are faced with a dilemma in delivering care for undocumented immigrant’s populations. Besides, new arrivals in a community bring diverse cultural backgrounds, perceptions and biases that may influence seeking for their care. The purpose of this paper is to develop a policy document that will enhance care for East Indian Immigrants. The scope of this paper incorporates developing a plan to offer healthcare services for undocumented immigrants or refugees.

Rationale for addressing Indian immigrant population

The immigration of Indian to America began in the 19^th century in small numbers. However, the population has grown immensely to 2.7 million in 2019 accounting for approximately 6% of American population after Mexicans (Sohi, 2014). Attainment of health care for East Indian migrants has always been a challenge due to their traditional, psychological and cultural beliefs. Considering these parameters, it’s fundamental to create a health plan to address the health and wellbeing of this population. Due to these cultural limitations, creating a care plan that improves the quality of care for the population is therefore, an aspect of utmost importance.

The behaviors of East Indian community are critical factors of consideration in impacting on quality care. For example, use of tobacco and cigarette has been cited to be high in the community, exacerbating the health condition of this population (Aaron &Cristina, 2019). According to statistics from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), East Indian population has a high prevalence of mortality due to complications attributed to smoking (CDC, 2020). Increase in smoking leads to respiratory complications and other pulmonary condition leading to fatalities. For example, statistics from the CDC indicates that East Indian population has a high prevalence for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and hypertension (CDC, 2020). These attributes are also exacerbated by dietary conditions and nutritional factors among this population. Therefore, it’s prudential to recommend adopting a healthy lifestyle for the population including dietary changes to increase the overall quality of life for this population.

Healthcare needs for East Indian population

To address the healthcare needs of the population under study, there is need to adopt a wholesome approach in this perspective. These include determining the social, cultural and health beliefs that impact on delivery of quality care. One of the critical factors cited above is health education to increase their knowledge on the need to live a healthy life. In this respect, there is an overarching need to respect their beliefs, cultures, preferences and traditions. As noted by Henderson, Horne, Hills and Kendall (2018) respecting a culture and beliefs of a society impacts positively on delivery of health education interventions.

The traditions and cultural belief of the Indian population has been cited to affect the overall health of an individual and the society as a whole (White, Norenzayan & Schaller, 2019). The implications of this aspect are that the practices and needs of East Indian immigrants can significantly affect the health challenges and medical needs of this population. Additionally, it is prudential to formulate pharmacological interventions that will address different comorbidities among the target population and mitigate any negative health challenge. According to Yilmaz et al., (2017), an individual’s culture and beliefs significantly affect delivery of health care services. For example, the East Indian community has still upheld traditional medicines including herbal medication to address in health challenge (Philips et al., 2020. The population also believes in India traditional religion whereby diseases and illnesses are solved from religious and cultural perspectives. Drawing from these perspectives, it is essential to address the health needs of this population by health promotion to address potential health challenges.

From a SWOT analysis perspective, health promotion model will be invaluable in enabling the population to be at the forefront in addressing health challenges inherent in the community. This approach has many opportunities for exploitation considering that it is possible to increase the overall health of the population by educating the population on healthy living. While there are weaknesses that some of the people may be reluctant to abandon their traditional medicine, this approach could be effective in delivering long-term solution to health needs of the population.

Organisations and stakeholders

To achieve the proposed objectives, this undertaking will incorporate a multidisciplinary team made up of healthcare professionals, the population of interest, government agencies, and non-governmental organisations that may be interested in funding this initiative. The input of Federal and State governments will be imperative to enable the population attain healthcare assessment considering that most of the people do not have ability to cater for health care services. The input of healthcare professionals will be imperative to create a bond that will be vital for understanding the patient’s outcome and quality of life to help the education intervention.

Studies have shown that East Indian immigrants are less likely to attend a health care program due to different challenges including socioeconomic status, language barriers, cultural barriers and orientation to traditional medicine. This implies that the stakeholders will need to play a fundamental role in bridging the gap in health care for this population considering that it effects the future health status overpopulation. Besides, the increasing number of East Indian population in the United States indicate that failure to address the health challenges will impact negatively on the health care delivery system in the country.

Policy document

 Characteristics defining Eastern Indian immigrant

Indian immigrants in the US are defined by the traditional and cultural perspectives including their religious beliefs and social interactions. One of the most prominent aspects in this population is the dress code that incorporates wrapping up a roll of dress from the head to the toe. The dress code is known as sari that is common among East Indian community. Identification of social and community stratification is also unique with women paint painting a red dot on the forehead to signify marriage. The people in East Indian community refer same gender to address the health care needs due to the attributes of dignity and self-modesty upheld in the community (Jugli, Chakravorty & Meyer-Rochow, 2020). This implies that any health care professional must be cognizant of these attributes to achieve overall healthcare objectives of the community. Sanskrit or Hindi is the primary language of communication. The traditional culture is therefore a heritage of cultural, social, and ethical values that must be upheld in delivery of quality care.

Current organisational policies provide Healthcare to East Indian population

Delivering healthcare to immigrants in the United States has become an issue of national concern necessitating the need for healthcare reforms (Adunlin et al., 2019). This condition is aggravated by presence of undocumented immigrants who may be in need of urgent medical attention. While documented immigrants and the permanent residence are covered by Medicare and Medicaid programs, there is still a huge population that is vulnerable in assessing quality care due to their social stratification and economic variables. The Affordable Care Act mandates legally incorporated immigrants to be given adequate Healthcare benefits. According to Gaffney and McCormick (2017), the Affordable Care Act and expands the coverage for health insurance and reducing the health care call for the American people. This implies that immigrants who are globally recognised can access health care services from either state or federal insurance coverage. Therefore, policies and legislations related to health care delivery for immigrants are at pace with the environmental changes.

Assumptions and biases associated with East Indian immigrants and its influence on access to care

The target population faces significant barriers in access to healthcare services due to several biases and assumptions. One of the fundamental biases is linguistic competency considering that effective collaboration and communication are fundamental aspects in delivering patient-cantered care. According to Zarea et al., (2018) lack of effective communication can contribute to medication error or diagnosis culminating in patient fatality or morbidity. Having a good relationship between a service provider and patient has been implicated for approving the overall delivery of care. In addition, the East Indian immigrants’ attitudes and beliefs are unique considering that the population is inclined towards their approaches and traditions. This bias can negatively affect delivery of health care services due to cultural differences between Healthcare providers and the patients.

Most of the health care practitioner in the United States may not understand the primary language of East Indian population which is Hindi. This implies that only a small proportion of healthcare providers may be competent to offer patient-centred care. This bias is therefore fundamental aspect and requires additional education and training for primary care providers and nurses to offer wholesome care to the population.

Two US Health care policies that provide guidance on current standards

The fundamental healthcare policies in the US jurisdiction include the Affordable care act (ACA) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) policy access to healthcare by immigrants. To begin with, the Affordable Care Act was enacted to improve the accessibility, quality and affordability of health care services in the United States. The policy has achieved significant milestones especially for the uninsured population leading to a decline from 16% in 2010 to 9.1% in 2015 (Gaffney & McCormick, 2017). This implies that the legislation has achieved insurance coverage among the population by almost 50%. The ACP legislation was enacted to increase access to health care among the Americans. This legislation caters for the immigrants by compelling healthcare professionals to provide Healthcare to immigrants without discrimination.

Conclusion

It is possible to deliver high-quality care to East Indian migrants while consequently respecting their culture, religion and beliefs. Despite the barriers that exist in delivery of care such as language and traditional differences, the multidisciplinary team will be able to handle these differences to enable for delivery of holistic Healthcare. The society that we have is characterized by diverse populations with unique cultural and traditional orientation. However, we will attain the healthy objectives by adhering to cultural competencies to enable the delivery of evidence-based care to all population at all times.

References

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