Cultural beliefs-practices of palliative home care patients from Leininger’s theory approach

Abstract

Introduction: Patient culture influences treatment selection, emotional expressions, decision-making, and patients’ communication. Palliative care allows a holistic approach to individuals and families suffering from life-threatening illnesses. Objective: To describe the beliefs and health-related cultural practices of adult patients in a palliative home care program in the city of Bogotá. Materials and methods: Qualitative ethnographic study. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 9 patients requiring palliative care, until theoretical saturation was reached. For data analysis, the guidelines of Leininger’s Cultural Care Theory based on the Sunrise Model were considered. Results: Three main categories were identified: cultural practices, beliefs about maintaining poor health and alleviating symptoms, and experiences adapting to illness and death, resulting in 13 subcategories. Discussion: After describing and analyzing the results obtained, it was observed that the participants have knowledge of cultural practices-beliefs that have been passed down from generation to generation and play an important role in the disease process. Conclusions: It became clear that there are practices that are considered protective and others that create risky behaviors that should be restructured, negotiated, or maintained in order to strengthen the care process and thus maintain a culturally competent approach.