The role of nursing in the health education of the Mennonites from the symbolic interactionism approach

Abstract

This work derives from an ethnographic qualitative research; and its object of study is the health education to persons belonging to the Mennonite culture, as well as these persons’ beliefs and perceptions on the health-illness process. From the data analysis, a need surges to explore the relationship between the Mennonite users and the nursing staff at the health centers of the Coloured community in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua, México.

Objective: To show the importance of nursing as a health education agent for different cultures. The interaction nurse-patient-family as proposed from the Joan Riehl Sisca nursing model is considered as the central core.

Method: Study with a phenomenological qualitative focus. Data were obtained by means of indepth interviews to nurses and the analysis of the field diaries of nursing students in their clinical practice at the gynecology and obstetrics city hospital. The categories found allowed a description of the participants’ perceptions about treating patients from a different culture. The validation criteria were conformed by triangulation of the reliability and confirmability data.

Results: The analyzed data are shown through two categories: 1) lack of knowledge of the Mennonite culture, and 2) desire to offer holistic care.

Conclusions: Students and nursing staff referred that when they achieve an understanding of the Mennonite cosmos-vision, they get a high degree of satisfaction for the offered care, and they discover a sense of high self-efficacy.