Alternative therapies have gained increasing recognition and usage in North America during the past decade. In a descriptive study with a convenience sample of 213 Mexican Americans, three research questions were asked: (1) What specific kinds of alternative therapies do Mexicans in the Rio Grande Valley use? (2) What percentage of the sample group uses alternative therapies? and (3) Do the users of alternative therapies self-report these visits to their established, conventional, primary health care provider? Findings showed that 44% of respondents had used an alternative practitioner one or more times during the previous year. The most commonly sought therapies were herbal medicine, spiritual healing and prayer, massage, relaxation techniques, chiropractic, and visits to a curandero (Mexican folk healer). The majority (66%) never report visits to alternative practitioners to their established primary health provider.
A significant aspect of holistic primary care nursing is that it seeks to assess and understand clients' health beliefs and behaviors in the context of culture. This article examines implications for primary care nursing practice based on the cultural beliefs and health behaviors of pregnant Mexican-American women. Giger and Davidhizar's transcultural assessment model is used to evaluate six cultural phenomena present in all cultural groups. Culturally sensitive primary care by certified nurse-midwives in a community health birth center setting is described.
In a descriptive study with a convenience sample of 60 Mexican Americans and 60 Anglo-Americans, four research questions were asked: (a) What kinds of and how frequently are alternative therapies used by the Mexican Americans and Anglos in the Texas Rio Grande Valley? (b) Is there a difference in the kinds and amounts of therapies used by the two groups? (c) Do the participants self-report this information to their established, conventional, care provider? and (d) What are the participants' subjective reports about these therapies? Findings showed that both groups used alternative practitioners, but that Mexican Americans reported using them more than twice as often as did Anglo-Americans. The most prevalent therapies sought by Mexican Americans were prayer, herbal medicine, massage, relaxation, spiritual healing, and chiropratic. The most prevalent therapies sought by Anglo-Americans were prayer, massage, chiropractic, herbal medicine, megavitamin therapy, and spiritual healing. Almost twice as many Mexican Americans (45%) report discussing their therapies with their established primary health provider than did Anglos (26.7%).
Holistic ethics involves a basic underlying concept of the unity and integral wholeness of all people and of all nature that is identified and pursued by finding unity and wholeness within the self. Within this framework, acts are not performed for the sake of law, precedent, or social norms, but rather out of a sense of doing good freely in order to witness, identify, and contribute to unity. The development of holistic ethics involves elements of both the masculine and feminine concepts interacting and relating to one another and encompassing traditional ethical views. It is characterized in the yin-yang mode of the monad of the East and the Western concept of masculine and feminine. Holistic ethics is not an ethics that is grounded or judged either in the act performed or in the distant consequences of the act, but rather in the conscious evolution of an enlightened individual of raised consciousness who performs the act. The concern is the effect of the act primarily on the individual and his or her larger Self (that unity of which he or she is a part).
In this article, the authors consider how professional nurses can strive to advance death and dying to the next level in our evolution of compassionate end-of-life practices. The authors focus on describing the development of a place for dying that allows for a peaceful, profound experience that honors and respects human dignity and elevates the human family. Actual places called the Golden Room or Golden Room Centers are proposed to accommodate dying persons and their loved ones at end of life as they make the transition from physical life. The authors detail and propose a return to the sacredness of death and dying through access to a place for the physical transition.
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