RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

Personal Health Beliefs

Kushanvir Gill
October 2, 2014
820 420 024

Introduction

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

Canada is a multicultural country with people from different religions and cultures. All
cultures have different health beliefs, which lays foundation for their understanding of what
causes illness, how it can be treated or cured and who should be involved in this process. There
are times when many people resort to cultural imposition according to which they impose their
values and beliefs on others because they believe that their values and beliefs are the absolute
guide to ensure proper wellbeing. In this essay, I will discuss, about what health means to me as
an individual, my health beliefs and how my cultural beliefs play a significant role on my health.
I will also discuss about the strategies that I might use to develop my personal health practices.
Furthermore, I will compare and contrast my health beliefs with one of my classmate Allie, who
is from a different ethnic background. In this essay, the purpose of comparative learning is the
smart way to get started on the nursing practice, as it will help me to learn about different
cultures by comparing the similarities or differences. This essay will give me a better
understanding of how I can apply my own health beliefs when I start my nursing practice in the
future.
Defining Health
Health plays an inevitable role in our lives. There are countless definitions of how people
define health. Different cultures define health differently. One may define the term health very
different from how others might define it. According, to me health is the state of existence free
from illness and being physically and mentally fit. However, after exploring numerous
definitions of health, I found a definition, which is most commonly cited definition of health. It
is World Health Organizations (WHO) definition of health: a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. (Potter&Perry, 2010,
pg2). After examining this definition of health, I started considering not only the physical and

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

mental aspects of life but also the social well-being of an individual. This definition explains
how a person needs to feel good and satisfactory internally in order to be healthy.
Health Beliefs and Determinants
According to me, my health beliefs go corresponding to my religion and culture. I am a
vegetarian and I hail from Sikh culture. The two determinants of health that influence my
personal health practice are my Culture and the social support network. Firstly, during times of
sickness and disease, I personally believe in praying to God to seek his help to obtain peace and
ask for forgiveness. I usually recite or listen to the prayers (Gurbani) and the sacred hymns
recited in the holy book. I believe that the sacred words provide me with physical and spiritual
strength and nourishment. (Sikh patient's protocol, 2000) I also believe in natural home
remedies. For example, if I have cold or a headache, I try to avoid medications such as Tylenol
and Advil. I would rather drink ginger tea or honey in hot water. I believe taking medications is a
short-term treatment and it usually treats one thing and can cause problem to some other parts of
the body. The only time I would seek medical attention is when my condition would be so
complex and no natural home remedy would help me in healing it. During my illness, I usually
evaluate the severity of my illness and see to what extend my body can tolerate it and then take
the medication if necessary. Secondly, social support affects health, health behaviors and health
care utilization through practical, emotional, informational and affirmation support (Potter &
Perry, 2010, Pg7). I believe that social support helps you psychologically and helps in reducing
stress. The more social support you have, more are the chances of being happy and it lessens the
chance of being stressed and getting sick.
Cultural beliefs

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

Living as a Sikh and being a vegan, in the Western society is quite challenging.
According to my cultural beliefs, I am not allowed to eat meat because it consists of killing of
innocent animals, which is considered as a sin in our religion. In addition, I cannot consume
anything which has egg in it such as any bakery products e.g. Donuts, timbits, muffins etc. Being
a vegan the only choice I have is eating fruits, vegetables and lentils. Vegetarian diet is usually
high in carbohydrates and lacks protein that is usually available from the meat. Due to this, I
usually lack in certain nutrients because I always cannot meet all the needs that my body
requires. Moreover, it is believed that girls should not consume much of the almonds, cashews
and any kind of cold beverages during the mensuration cycle because it can cause irregular cycle
or skip one or two and can cause some side effects in future. I usually consume only five
almonds a day because it lowers bad cholesterol and nourish the nervous system. In this way, my
cultural beliefs always have a conflict with my health beliefs to decide on what I can eat or not.
Health Strategies
Some strategies that I can use to improve my personal health practices would be eating a
balanced diet, eating in small portions, going for regular checkups, physical assessment, and
regular physical exercise, which is a good way of getting rid of the stress. The physical health is
directly connected to the mental and emotional health because when we exercise our body
releases some chemicals that energize us and lifts our mood. (Smith , Segal & Segal, 2013) In
order to stay healthy I will start learning more about the nutritional needs for my body. In
addition, I will focus on my sleeping habits by making sure that I get enough sleep so that my
body can work efficiently and effectively.

Compare and Contrast

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

Individuals usually bond intensely with their culture and define themselves through their
cultural identity. I compared my health beliefs with my classmate Allie who belongs to Chinese
culture. Different cultures have different health beliefs, to understand what causes illness and
how it can be treated. To discover more about different cultures I studied my classmate's paper to
compare and contrast some similarities and differences. According to Allie, Chinese people
believe in homeostasis and the Chinese philosophies and religion influence the Chinese way of
living and thinking about health and health care. They also believe that emphasis of family over
an individual is important and one should respect their elders. Both the Sikh and the Chinese
culture follow their religion to understand the concept of the health and the respect of an elder is
also considered vital in both the religions. Despite of some similarities, we also possess some
differences within our health beliefs and i.e. that the Chinese people believe that the loss of
familys dignity can have influence on the health behavior of an individual and the medical
decision-making. They also believe that illness can be caused due to the interference of the
spirits of the ancestors, who try to take revenge.
Analyzing Nursing Practice
From the comparative learning aspect of Allies health beliefs, I learnt that being a nurse I
need to be culturally aware about different backgrounds and have knowledge about the clients
culture in order to provide them with the care they require with the due respect to their health
beliefs and values. The comparative learning also made it clear that by knowing the needs of my
client, it will help me to develop a better client-nurse relationship. I can now apply the concept of
cultural pluralism in my nursing practice in a better way, as per this concept we respect and
promote the rights of others to have different beliefs, values, behaviors and ways of life (Potter &
Perry, 2010, pg.116). In future, I will first educate myself about the beliefs of my client before I

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

assess them and make sure that I get the consent before I do any further assessment. I will have
to form a therapeutic relationship with my patient and maintain a positive approach towards
them. This learning has added to my knowledge how I will come across clients from different
backgrounds and ethnic groups, with different health beliefs and values. I would have to treat
everyone equally with patience, respect and an assertive attitude.
Conclusion
In conclusion, nursing practice involves learning about diverse groups, including their
values and health beliefs. It is the responsibility of the nurse to seek information about the
clients culture and assist them with their needs. This assignment helped me to explore my own
views about my health and my health beliefs, factors that affect my health and how I can
improve my health practices. It also assisted me to discover few things about the Chinese culture
and provided me with the information about how the cultural morals and values are important in
different cultures. It provided me with the imprecise glance of my nursing practice that I will
follow in future keeping in mind that being a health care practitioner, I will have to remove
cultural imposition from my practice and provide the client with the care practice that fits with
the values, beliefs and lifeway of the client.

References
Potter, P., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P. A., & Hall, A. M. (2010). Canadian fundamentals of nursing
(4th ed). (J.C. Ross-Kerr, M.J. Wood, B.J. Astle, & W. Duggleby Eds). Toronto: Mosby
(2000). Sikh patient's protocol for health care providers.Beliefs Related to Health Care,
Retrieved February 5,2014 from http://www.sikhwomen.com/health/care/protocol.htm
CNO (2012) (Entry to Practice Competencies for Ontario RPN)
http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/reg/41042_EntryPracRPN.pdf

RUNNING HEAD: Personal Health Beliefs

Smith, M., Segal, R., & Segal, J. S. (2013, 12). Improving emotional health. Retrieved February
5,2014 from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/mental_emotional_health.htm