NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 – Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 – Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

About 14% percent of the residents in the United States belong to a foreign nation with diverse cultural backgrounds, giving them strengths and weaknesses when living in the U.S. However, many immigrants may need more healthcare when accessing the services to improve their health problems. This paper will interchangeably analyze the Mexican population, often referred to as Hispanics or Latinos.

The Rationale for Addressing the Healthcare Needs of a Particular Immigrant Population

Mexico has been the top country for increasing the population of immigrants in the United States. It was estimated in 2021 that there would be almost 10.7 million individuals from Mexico (American Immigration Council, 2021). These immigrants contribute highly to the immigrant population accounting for about 24 percent (American Immigration Council, 2021). These immigrants may have less access to healthcare services having a poor experience with the healthcare services of the U.S.

A strong U.S. economy in the past has been the reason for the increased flow of Mexican immigrants into the country. The rise of this immigrant population began in the 1900s (The Library of Congress, n.d.). Undocumented immigrants have been vulnerable to different levels of exploitation, and document how much of this expansion has occurred.

NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 – Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

Selection Criteria

This population was selected after researching the population of immigrants in the U.S. and finding out its greatest contribution. Socioeconomic and health status were also analyzed before choosing the individuals.

Assessing the Healthcare Needs

To efficiently assess the healthcare needs of these immigrant populations, it would be efficient to use the SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis helps determine the population’s threats, weaknesses, and strengths. The weakness of Hispanic immigrants is usually the difficulties they face accessing healthcare due to the lack of insurance, which may become a barrier (National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). Another barrier is a language that hinders communication between healthcare providers and patients. There is also a stigma related to these immigrant populations, which leads to discrimination against the population (National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). The strength of Hispanic or Latino immigrants is that family is considered a very important unit in their culture. The family is responsible for helping other members who may be in trouble (Canún, 2022). This allows the patient’s care providers to be involved in healthcare services, improving outcomes. The opportunity for these immigrants is to apply for legal status and insurance. They can look for healthcare facilities that treat undocumented patients. The threats to these immigrants are healthcare facilities’ refusal to treat undocumented patients and deportation.

Characteristics That Define the Population

Being the largest group of immigrants in the U.S., these immigrants are usually young with barriers to speaking English and need to be more educated. Most of these immigrants are Mexican men, and their median age is about 37. Only 5% of these immigrants have a degree, and about 60% of the population has lower education than high school (American Immigration Council, 2021).

The cultural characteristic of Hispanic culture is Spanish, and religion is an essential part of Latin and Hispanic culture. The religion that these populations follow is Christianity. Their culture has put a strong emphasis on family well-being. Some of the fatalistic beliefs of these groups prevent them from taking part in screening tests, leading them to severe illnesses (Gast et al., 2017). Level of acculturation also has an impact, as less acculturated families have more identity and connectedness as they have traditional gender roles regarding who makes critical decisions. Greater acculturated families have more independence; however, there can be conflict regarding who makes decisions (Gast et al., 2017).

NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 – Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

Identify the Organizations & Stakeholders

Mexican Section of the U.S./Mexico Border Health Commission has launched an initiative called Juntos por la Saud (JPLS) offers health prevention and promotion services for Hispanics (Rangel et al., 2019). JPLS helps provide referrals and screenings to healthcare providers by developing a medical home to help provide healthcare services and reduce costs through timely healthcare screenings and education. National Alliance for Hispanic Health (NAHH) is another non-profit organization that improves the health of Hispanic communities by raising awareness and improving access to health utilization (The Office of Minority Health, n.d.).

These organizations and some of the most important stakeholders can collaborate to provide care for the population. Healthcare professionals and nurses can enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes by understanding the population’s culture and making an individualized care plan. There can be improved communication to provide accessible care by collaborating with the patients. Policymakers are other important stakeholders in developing policies that help the Hispanic and Latino communities get accessible care. Interpreters can help overcome communication barriers with a translation that improves communication.

Interpreting Current Organizational Policies for Healthcare Provision

Under the current organizational policies of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), undocumented immigrants can not access health insurance coverage, but these immigrants can purchase private health coverage (National Immigration Forum, 2022). Emergency care can be provided to immigrants under Medicaid. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) allow undocumented immigrants to access prescription drugs and primary care (National Immigration Forum, 2022).

Other policies provide health coverage to immigrant communities like Hispanics. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTL) ensure that all communities have accessible healthcare services irrespective of their financial and legal situation (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.).

Assumptions & Biases Associated

The assumptions and biases must be highlighted when analyzing the access to care for the population. Cultural variables like the level of acculturation have been linked to health-protecting behaviors in the families of Hispanics and Latinos (Gast et al., 2017). Fatalistic beliefs would have to be addressed, which as the lack of faith that these communities have in healthcare services preventing screening tests. Spirituality is a major value for Latinos that have to be considered. Such spiritual factors would have a negative impact as healthcare access would be hindered. Marital statuses would also have to be highlighted as it has been reported that marriage seems to be an effective way of improving health that transmits health-promoting behaviors; this seems to have a positive impact on accessible care as marriage would allow visitation to hospitals as health would be promoted (Gast et al., 2017). Lack of proficiency in English among the communities can cause linguistic barriers, which would reduce access to healthcare, and nurses would be unable to communicate with them.

NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 – Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population

Evaluating Two U.S. Health Care Policies

The two healthcare policies that should be evaluated for guiding the current standards are The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTL) and Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act, signed in 2010, allows increased access to healthcare insurance coverage for the Hispanic and Latino communities by making it more affordable. However, undocumented individuals would not be eligible for this (Bustamante et al., 2018). Without the implementation of ACA, the disparities among the Mexican communities would have been larger. Several studies have shown ACA reducing disparities among Mexicans. But there are still disparities when it comes to English proficiencies, income, and documentation status (Bustamante et al., 2018).

The Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) regulates health provision services. This policy prohibits the hospitals from refusing any treatment request to the patients and providing appropriate medical screening examinations. It also prohibits hospitals from transferring or discharging patients inappropriately, which violates EMTALA (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.).

Conclusion

This paper analyzes the undocumented Mexican communities by understanding their cultural values. There can be several obstacles related to cultural factors, communication, and discrimination. Stakeholders like interpreters, healthcare professionals, and policymakers need to collaborate with the organizations like NAHH to provide accessible care.

References

American Immigration Council. (2021). Immigrants in the United States. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-the-united- states

Bustamante, A. V., McKenna, R. M., Viana, J., Ortega, A. N., & Chen, J. (2018). Access-to-care differences between Mexican heritage and other Latinos in California after the affordable care act. Health Affairs, 37(9), 1400–1408. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0416

Canún, N. (2022, January 18). The Powerful Role of Family in Hispanic Culture [Unlike U.S. Culture]. Homeschool Spanish Academy. https://www.spanish.academy/blog/the- powerful-role-of-family-in-Hispanic-culture-unlike-u-s-culture/

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (n.d.). Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) | CMS. https://www.cms.gov/regulations-and- guidance/legislation/metal

Gast, J., Peak, T., & Hunt, A. (2017). Latino health behavior: An exploratory analysis of health risk and health protective factors in a community sample. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 14(1), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827617716613

National Immigration Forum. (2022, September 21). Fact Sheet: Undocumented Immigrants and Federal Health Care Benefits. https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet- undocumented-immigrants-and-federal-health-care-benefits/

Rangel Gómez, M. G., López Jaramillo, A. M., Svarch, A., Tonda, J., Lara, J., Anderson, E. J., & Rosales, C. (2019). Together for health: An initiative to access health services for the Hispanic/Mexican population living in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00273

The Office of Minority Health. (n.d.). National Alliance for Hispanic Health – The Office of Minority Health. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/content.aspx?ID=9142

The Library of Congress. (n.d.). A Growing Community | Mexican | Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/classroom- materials/immigration/Mexican/a-growing-community

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