Hispanic heritage

Maria is a 40-year-old  Hispanic heritage female who is in her second year of nursing school. She complains of a 14-pound weight gain since starting school and is afraid of what this will do to both her appearance and health if the trend continues. After conducting her history, you learn that she is an excellent cook and she and her family love to eat foods that reflect their Hispanic heritage. She is married with two school-age children. She attends class a total of 15 hours per week, plus she must be present for 12 hours of labs and clinical. She maintains the household essentially by herself and does all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring of the children. She states that she is lucky to get 6 hours of sleep per night, but that is okay with her. She lives 1 hour from campus and commutes each day.

1.   What additional information would you like to gather from Maria?

2.   What are Maria’s real and potential health risks?

3.   Why is Maria’s culture important when obtaining the health assessment?