Case Study

Assume that you are Janice Herbert, RN the nurse who will be interviewing mothers who have experienced fetal or infant loss.  Recognize that you have never worked with this culture, yet you do have some skills with the language.

Completely and fully answer the following questions. 

Remember to focus on respect, understanding diversity, advocacy, culture, and social justice in your answers.
Janice Herbert, RN, relocated from Maine to San Antonio, Texas because of a change in her husband’s job.  She began to work for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District as a maternal and infant nurse.  Her job included conducting all interviews for mothers who had experienced loss of an infant for the health department’s fetal infant mortality review program.  These interviews were conducted as part of a surveillance data collected to help the county understand contributing factors to fetal and infant death.  Her husband wondered whether she was ready for the job, because a large portion of the population in San Antonio is Mexican American.  Janice responded that she felt confident taking on the job as she had taken Spanish in college, and she had been brushing up on her Spanish.  However, her husband pointed out to her that when she was working in Maine, she had not had any Hispanic/Latino patients.

  1. To help prepare for the job, she where should she start?
  2. Review the demographics of Texas and of San Antonio.  What are the major ethnic groups in the state and in San Antonio?
  3. Identify key cultural values of which Janice will need to be aware.
  4. Demonstrate cultural understanding of death within this culture.
  5. How would she conduct a cultural assessment of the community? How will this impact her visits with the mothers?
  6. How will Janice’s increased understanding inform her responsibilities in the job?
  7. Prepare a dialog of how you would schedule to meet the families, develop rapport with the families, and how you would begin the conversation relative to fetal and infant loss.
  8. What resources would you coordinate to refer for the family to receive support?