Culture brokerage strategies in diabetes education.
The purpose of this article is to describe the elements of culture brokerage as applied in a recent educational pilot study among rural African Americans with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Culture Brokerage is a nursing intervention consisting of mediation between the traditional health beliefs and practices of a patient's culture and the health care system. The intervention of Culture Brokerage holds particular relevance for clinicians who work with chronically ill patients, including those with diabetes. Diabetes prevalence rates continue to rise with alarming swiftness, affecting people of all age groups and ethnicities. The burden of disease, however, disproportionately falls on ethnic minority groups, including African Americans. Notable health disparities in the prevalence and long-term complications of diabetes warrant the attention of health care professionals. One way in which public health nurses can address these disparities is to apply strategies of culture brokerage.
Alexander
Gina K
GK
Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. gka8c@virginia.edu
Uz
Sharon W
SW
Hinton
Ivora
I
Williams
Ishan
I
Jones
Randy
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D054521:Cultural Competency; D003469:Culture; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017008:Negotiating; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D011637:Public Health Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012944:Social Support; D014768:Virginia; D055815:Young Adult