Puerto Rico Health Beliefs and Practices Birth Control Childbirth Food Preferences And Death and Dying
Providing patient-centered care includes the delivery of culturally safe and sensitive care. This means designing and delivering care plans that meet the health, social, and cultural needs of the patient. Puerto Rico is one of the territories of the United States. Puerto Ricans are the second largest subcultural group of Hispanics. Although a territory of the U.S., Puerto Rico has the highest poverty rates compared to other states. Up to 44 percent of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, with 57 percent of families with children living in extreme poverty (Puerto Rico Report, 2022). Puerto Ricans face major challenges when accessing healthcare in the U.S due to their economic status and due to their culture, which is different from the mainstream U.S population. This has contributed to a majority of Puerto Ricans suffering from worse health outcomes than other Americans, such as more chronic diseases, worse mental health outcomes, and a lower life span. In order to provide services that meet the health care and social problems of Puerto Ricans, a provider needs to understand their culture and views of health. This paper presents the health beliefs and practices, birth control, childbirth, food preferences, and death and dying perspectives of Puerto Ricans.
Health Beliefs and Practices
Puerto Ricans view the body as one made of a body, a mind, and a spirit. A majority of Puerto Ricans, whether living in Puerto Rico or in the United States, maintain a close relationship and hold to their traditional views about health, sickness, and ways of curing the body of any illness. Their health beliefs and practices are based on the ideologies of spiritualism central to the Puerto Rican culture. According to the Puerto Rican traditional views on health and disease, any form of illness or health issue that affects the body in any form is viewed as a possession by evil spirits (Purnell & Fenkl, 2019). Due to this view on health, the health practices of Puerto Ricans include consulting a medium and use of natural or traditional medicines to manage the illness rather than consulting a healthcare professional. Puerto Ricans also tend to be suspicious of new and modern medicines and other healthcare practices. They tend to take time to adopt new healthcare practices and may avoid such practices if they tend to contradict their traditional health beliefs.
Death and Dying
The Puerto Ricans believe that the physical world and the spiritual life are a continuum of life. They view death and dying as transitioning from the physical to the spiritual world. The Puerto Rican religious beliefs are majorly composed of Christian or Catholic denominations, and traditional beliefs hold the belief that the people in their life go to rest and join their ancestors in heaven or the spirit world. To Puerto Ricans, death is not the end of one’s life but rather a transition from earth to the afterlife. Puerto Ricans, like other Hispanic traditions, hold vigils and long prayers for their dead ones to ease their transition from the physical world to the spiritual world. Besides these, Puerto Ricans may also hold other ceremonies in respect of the departed. In most Hispanic traditions, persons at their end of life wish to be surrounded by family and people close to them in their life (Balk, 2020). However, the nature of the U.S healthcare system does not support such wishes, as those dying within hospital settings are more likely to die surrounded by strangers.
Food Preferences
Puerto Ricans have a very rich and unique culinary heritage. The Puerto Ricans’ food preferences and their food traditions are influenced by native islanders, Spanish food traditions, African food traditions, and culinary traditions. Puerto Ricans’ traditional dish is the Arroz con gandules. This is a dish served across Puerto Rico, which is made of rice with pigeon peas or beans and spiced with a sauce called sofrito. Besides the rice and beans dish, Puerto Ricans also have other dishes that are traditional to the Puerto Rican culinary culture, such as the mofongo, coquito, pasteles, tembleque, and tostones. Other dishes or drinks that are linked to Puerto Rican food culture or traditions include the Puerto Rico Pina Colada Cocktail, the Lechon Asado Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Quesito Cheese Pastry, Puerto Rico café, Alcapurrias, and Bacalaitos.
Birth Control and Childbirth
Puerto Rican traditional views on children and childbirth are against birth control. Puerto Ricans view a child born into a family as a blessing from God. All pregnancies are appreciated, and the view of a child as a blessing means that no pregnancies are unwanted. Besides this view, Puerto Ricans view having a child with a certain man as a security for marriage. Puerto Rican women tend to have a long-held belief that having a child with a man makes them love more and makes the men want to marry them sooner. Puerto Ricans hold a negative attitude towards birth control methods provided by the U.S due to their experiences with colonial methods of population control in Puerto Rico. Colonialists controlled population growth in Puerto Rico by sterilizing Puerto Rican women and using women as colonial lab rats to test for new birth control pills (Medina, 2020). As a result, Puerto Ricans still hold the view that the U.S used and uses birth control methods in their country as a method to terminate the Puerto Rican population. These experiences with the colonialists, as well as the Puerto Ricans’ lack of trust in modern and scientific medicine and methods of care, make it hard to use birth control methods. Additionally, this contributes to the risk of death experienced by Puerto Rican women during childbirth.
Conclusion
Cultural awareness is important when delivering health care to a diverse patient population. Understanding diverse cultures is a process. However, as a health care provider, the first step is appreciating and reflecting on one’s culture, understanding biases, and the differences with other cultures. The next step is understanding other cultures within the patient patients. Understanding the culture includes an analysis of the components of the target culture, including beliefs, foods, spiritual views, family views, values, and gestures, among other aspects of the culture. Understanding other cultures and traditions besides one’s own culture is the ultimate way to achieve equity and inclusion in healthcare delivery in the United States.
Conclusively, by understanding Puerto Ricans’ health beliefs and practices and their cultural views on death and dying, birth control and childbirth, and their food preferences, it is possible for a healthcare provider to develop a culturally congruent healthcare plan for Puerto Rican patients.
References
Balk, D. E. (2020). Death and Dying. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology, 9–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119057840.CH183
Medina, C. (2020). “The Very Insides of Nationality”: Reproduction, Reform, and Birth Control as Population Control in 20th Century Puerto Rico. Dissertations. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1853
Puerto Rico Report. (2022). Poverty in Puerto Rico to Be Reduced, Studies Say. https://www.puertoricoreport.com/poverty-in-puerto-rico-to-be-reduced-studies-say/#.Y1jGW3ZBzIU
Purnell, L. D., & Fenkl, E. A. (2019). People of Puerto Rican Heritage. Handbook for Culturally Competent Care, 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21946-8_26
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Question 
Objectives:
Recognize the customs of Puerto Rico and become culturally sensitive to the needs of patients from Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico Health Beliefs and Practices Birth Control Childbirth Food Preferences And Death and Dying
Understand the meaning of cultural competence and culturally responsive care and how to apply it in a clinical setting.
Groups will create an experience of taste and explore medical care, customs, and religious preferences in relation to the cultural orientation of the people represented.