Fundamentals of Nursing Q 550
A nurse is conducting an assessment of an American Indian woman who has come to the clinic complaining of a headache. The patient tells the nurse that the medicines prescribed by the tribal healer have done some good. What is the appropriate response of the nurse at this time?
A. Tell me about these medicines and how often you are using them.
B. I advise you to refrain from taking those medicines from the tribal healer.
C. Could these medicines cause your headaches?
D. Maybe you should increase the frequency of the healer's medicines.
Correct Answer: A. Tell me about these medicines and how often you are using them.
Asking the patient about the nature of these medicines and how often the client uses them allows the nurse to collect data about the medicines and their uses, to learn more about the practices used by this patient to improve her health, and to check for a potential drug interaction before prescribing other medications or treatment.
Option B: Advising the client to stop taking any nonprescription medicines is inappropriate until the nurse knows the details about all medicines used by the client. Health, for the individual Native American and/or the tribe or family, depends on proper actions and interactions with the spirit world. Well-being or wholeness comes about through walking in harmony with the forces of nature and the universe. Illness is a sign of having fallen out of step with those forces thus causing disharmony in spirit, mind, and body.
Option C: Suggesting the client’s headaches are caused by the healer’s medicines is inappropriate until the nurse knows details about the medicines. Native Americans consider healing a sacred calling. If one is called into the healing ministry one must use that gift to help others. Native healers use healing places and natural means to cure people during illness. Healing power comes from the natural forces of the earth, which can be reached through the saying of prayers.
Option D: Telling the patient to increase the frequency of the healer’s medicines is not within the practice of a nurse. During times of illness, many Native Americans will call upon a medicine man or woman or shaman. In most cases, the medicine person is also considered a holy person because it is the belief that they do all of their healing with the Creator’s help and guidance. Many Native Americans today will call upon both modern medicine and traditional healing ceremonies to achieve wellness.