When preparing a health assessment, it is important to acquire knowledge of the patientâ€s cultural background. This is known as cultural competency. Cultural competency is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations (Center for Disease and Control and Prevention, 2020). For this discussion, my patient, Mono Nu, a 44-year-old Filipino patient comes to the clinic today to have his “blood thinner” labs drawn since he started them two weeks ago. International Journal of Basic Science in Medicine Essay

Upon assessing the labs, the nurse practitioner notes that he is still out of range. When assessing the patientâ€s compliance both stated that he had been taking them just as prescribed. He has been doing well and eating a diet rich in fish and tofu. He doesnâ€t understand why his medications are not working. The Republic of the Philippines is located east and Southeast Asia. The country’s cuisine is a mixture of Chinese, Malay, American, and Spanish foods (a mixture of rice, seafood, and vegetables) are a major component of Filipino cuisine (Bailey, 2021). Fish has a good source of glycosaminoglycan (GAG). GAG extracted from fish scales has valuable anticoagulant properties compared to synthetic anticoagulant compounds such as heparin (Karimzadeh, 2018). However, Mr. Nu also stated that he consumes a lot of tofu as well. Tofu contains natto. Fermented natto after consumption has high-plasma vitamin K concentrations which is an antagonist of warfarin (Homma, Wakana, Suzuki, Daimatsu, Tanaka, Tanaka, Koga, Nakajima, & Nakazawa, 2006). International Journal of Basic Science in Medicine Essay  In addition to preparing for my patient I will make sure the way I communicate is effective for the patient as well. For example, I would make sure to include family as Filipino cultures believe in family to help with illnesses. I would also make sure to not have firm eye contact as this may insinuate disrespect. Finally, I will have documentation in the primary language of tagalog if the patient does not speak English. My 5 questions are as follows: What type of “blood thinner” are you taking? How do you prepare your food? Recent studies have shown that boiling tofu is better when on a blood thinner. Are you taking any other medications/herbal medications? Do you have any new bruises or experienced any bleeding including blood in the stool? What time of day do you take your medication? International Journal of Basic Science in Medicine Essay