The Mendi Culture in Nursing Practice Essay
The Mendi people represent one of the largest ethnic set in Sierra Leone. They predominantly live in the Southern and Eastern Province. Their socio-economic occupation includes farming and hunting. They believe that most humanistic and to other generations through secret societies (Hays, 1991). Their family and community structures involve larger and smaller families. People become members of a family by birth. However, people not born in certain families can belong to other families through continued residence (Hays, 1991).
The Mendi Culture and Nursing Practice
The structure also has a clanship that fulfills diverse responsibilities including defending the community and provision of support during marriage and death. A persons personal authority in a clan is determined through networks created for external exchange (Hays, 1991). Exchange partnerships can exist between genders. The Sowie represent the most ranking leaders among the Mendi. They have a responsibility to model women to equip them with important social values. The peoples belief that ancestral spirits punish those with moral ills acts as social control (Hays, 1991).
The Mendi people have continued giving birth in the rural areas. Their attitude about pregnancy entails the desire to visit hospitals to for their unborn children. The use of traditional and indigenous medicine to treat other illnesses cannot be used among pregnant women (Hays, 1991). The community keeps away from such traditional medication in treating their children. Childbearing is a responsibility that belongs to women in the community.
In society, death occurring across age groups is considered to be caused by certain things. They believe that the death of youths and adults takes place because of political reasons. The people maintain that collective responsibility in the community demands public wealth reparation to a household that has lost its family member (Hays, 1991). They also believe that infants and older adults deaths are natural and cannot be associated with any bad omen. They inter bodies of dead family members within the village cemeteries to keep their spirits around. They believe that the spirit of the dead takes care of the living.
The Mendi people have unique attitudes and beliefs about health. The people undertake preventive health services such as using certain herbs and other imported medicine to prevent them from becoming sick. They also believe that using local medicine helps in treating chronic diseases. The Mendi people also conducted surgeries to remove arrows lodged on the body (Hays, 1991). The Mendi never used to seek hospitalization for life-threatening illnesses. However, they now have provincial medical services at the town centers.
The Mendi people believe that mental health problems are caused by powerful sorcerers. They believe that mental conditions are treatable through applying appropriate sorcery exorcism. The affected individual is transferred to the forest where curing procedures are initiated using different vegetative medicine (Sillinger, 2003). The Mendi people keep a lot of pigs, which they consider as a source of wealth in the community. Their the consumption of local and European vegetables and sweet potatoes, which they grow in their farms. The community also grows sugarcane, which is used to sweeten their tea made using coffee (Sillinger, 2003). They take part in hunting activities to obtain bush meat to supplement their meals.
The Mendi people prefer to care for their older adults within the homesteads. However, there are also old age homes where senior members of the Mendi society spend their time under the care of volunteers and trained people (Old Age Homes, 2013). Old age homes offer an environment that is conducive for older people to continue with their lives and contribute to better living. The Mendi people have significantly superior nutritional practices because they access adequate food supply throughout the year (Sillinger, 2003). They engage in agricultural activities in order to for their households. The social practices entail the structures where by women are inferior to men in cases of marital relationships. The people access little formal education and illiteracy rates are high (Sillinger, 2003). Women have started gaining control of diverse resources to help them plan their life. Initiation of girls transforms them into women. The community practices verbal communication in their interaction with others.
The application of the nursing process in the provision of nursing services remains fundamentally simple. The process of evaluating nursing services needs can attract community participation. Therefore, nursing practitioners are able to do nursing diagnosis, which responds to the health needs of the population. The planning of nursing services also requires the participation of the community. Their participation is crucial for providing nursing services that meets their needs. The implementation of the nursing services also requires ownership of the community members.
