an American Indian male with diabetes who receives care at a non-tribal clinic. He reports that he does not feel much of a connection with his provider or his clinic, and says that he feels misunderstood when he tells his provider about his traditional healing practices. He struggles to remember to take his medications and sometimes does not take them because he feels that they don’t work. Certainly there are a lot of cultural and ethical barriers affecting people behavior in taking their medication. As for Matthew, being an American Indian male has already been exposed to their traditional remedy. So having that in mind I will think that the provider needs to be cultural sensitive and try to work with him. The use of appropriate techniques
In addition, relying on a doctor who does not share the same beliefs as one does can become fearful. Trusting the doctor for full treatment is necessary but when from a different cultural background it can prevent them on trusting them. According to a research article, Cross- Cultural Medicine a Decade Later, clearly states “when the basic belief structure of biomedicine and another set of health beliefs differs radically, problems and frustrations almost inevitably arise” (Barker, 1992, p.249). The central purpose of the research was to show whether or not health beliefs between patient and doctor differs will they find it difficult to interpret the symptoms and treatment variations to accommodate their beliefs. However, the doctor having faith in one’s health beliefs can sometimes be beneficial for the patients because they’ll be fully understood and not misjudged as being crazy. As stated by the author, for the article Chinese Health Beliefs of Older Chinese in Canada, “the findings support the previous prescriptive knowledge about Chinese health beliefs and illustrate the intergroup socio-cultural diversity that health practitioners should acknowledge in their practice” (Lai, 2009, 38). Like the Chinese, Hmong’s too first go to their shaman for traditional treatment rather than going to the doctor; to them an illness and their healing is more of a spiritual thing that
Usually, with treatment, there “tends to be a focus on Western medicine techniques that may be interpreted as belittling the culture’s traditional practices (Beiser 1985) or not validating American Indian spiritual ceremonies as therapy” (Larois et al., 2011). The American Indian culture is vastly different with specific customs. Naturally, “individuals entering treatment may desire treatment programs that are more culturally specific and can attend to the needs of their communities” (Larois et al., 2011). Clinicians can provide a level of comfort if therapeutic approaches are catered to the culture of American Indian clients. The barrier clinician’s run into is that “funding sources require the use of EBTs and these programs find themselves adapting their treatments to fulfill these requirements” (Larois et al., 2011). Insurances have an immense impact and say on the services offered because they are the ones paying. Clinicians can find themselves in a bind because they ultimately have to answer to these insurances companies who pay them for their services. The system is set up in a manner that is not conducive to the American Indian culture.
The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman talks about a young Hmong child who is treated by American doctors for her epilepsy. It goes on to explain how the differences in the two cultures, Hmong and American, affected the medical treatment of this child. Her doctors and her parents had different views on how to effectively treat her. This book demonstrates how the lack of communication across different cultures can impact the medical treatment and the outcomes of patients.
Anne Fadiman wrote this book to document the conflict between cultural barriers and how they affect medical issues. In this book, Lia Lee is a Hmong child was has epilepsy and battles cultural medical differences. The main struggle in this story is the conflict between the doctors and parents because they cannot seem to get on the same page. While writing the book, Fadiman stated that there was a “clash of cultures”. (Fadiman, preface) Meaning, there are two different sides to the story and the problem has not be solved.
Health care disparities in the United States occur on the provider level. The implicit biases providers are susceptible to help shape physician behavior and produce differences in medical treatment across a host of demographic characteristics but mainly along the lines of race and ethnicity. This paper focuses mainly on the relationship between providers and Black Americans. There is a complex and historical relationship between providers and Black Americans which dates back to the 16th century that is the basis for the biases physicians exhibit towards this particular minority group in today’s healthcare system. Contrary to popular belief, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1932 is not the forerunner to a host of medical abuses committed against
After watching the Cultural Competence in Health care video, I learned that there are many different people I will deal with in my career as an advocate for health. One quote I really liked from the video stated, “My diversity is my strength, not my weakness”. I believe this is true because having so many different people of different cultural backgrounds opens up the opportunity for different points of view to develop new ideas. This reminds me of the activity we did in class on our first day. We were asked to simply write down what our thoughts were. What we realized upon getting our sheets back is that when you work with others, they may have an idea you had not thought about. Overall, I think this video is a good representation of the
My take away from the book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” as I progress through the pharmacy curriculum and into practice is that I must be aware of my patient’s cultural background. Help my patient overcome social determinant barriers such as language, education, and others that could prevent patient’s from accessing to quality care. Through out the curriculum I will be exposed to multiple rotation settings and involvement with different ethnic population. My take away from this book will help me effectively associate with my patient in term of respect and sensitivity when it comes to cultural differences. In my future practices, the examples from this book will help me able to communicate effectively with my patient so I can
According to the results of a survey conducted, by 2050 the population of the United States will predominantly (more than fifty percent) consist of the non-whites. With this fact in mind, it would be highly advisable to meet the anticipated changes. in order to ensure a fully competent and ethnic-minded workforce. Different ethnic backgrounds come with their particular cultural specifications, which call for a person with an in-depth knowledge of these specifications in order to accord satisfactory attendance to the patients and clients (Mason, 2012). Furthermore, many patients and customers feel more at ease with someone they can relate to, be it ethnically, in terms of gender, background or even religion. It remains an unquestionable fact
Addressing the extent of formal health care and use of medicines among African immigrants requires careful attention to cultural attitudes and perceptions that influence health care-seeking behaviors. There is tendency for culture and certain traditions to affect people’s perspective about prescription medications. I am writing about cultural clash with modern medicine. There are a lot of cultural barriers that could affect medication adherence especially for African immigrants. The reason I selected this topic is that I can relate to it very well. Also, I am going to be serving in a community where there are a lot of Africans and people migrating from Africa.
There are many disparities in healthcare access, especially when it comes to clients living at or below the poverty level. Mauer and Smith (2013) suggested that community/public health nurses should know the concerns of the clients regarding accessibility or convenience, availability, and acceptability of healthcare services. Many factors such as economic status, educational levels, and employment steer health seeking behaviors and influence how the community/public health nurse can help.
The social and cultural barriers are illustrated. It is found that there is more misunderstanding in serving the patients that are form the other culture and those results less compliance and less satisfaction to the patients (Shouten, 2006). It is imperative for the doctors to understand that a person’s culture is not only the different in terms of dress, diet and etiquettes but the ethics and values as well (Kleinman, 2006). The first barrier is the language barrier. The barrier takes place because Mexican people generally speak Spanish and they are unable to pronounce correctly. It is evident that many Mexican have language barriers. Another barrier is the false fluency as the American doctors may have interpreted wrongly the meaning of Spanish word (Juckett, 2013). It is due to unfamiliarity with the linguistic and cultural aspects of Mexico. Doctors are unable to understand the reading and writing skills of the patient and her family. They may be unable to understand the listening and speaking skills of family. Doctors and medical care unit might have found it difficult to obtain the self treatment that generally Mexican people prefer. Other social obstacles are illegal immigration, different set of health belief and illiteracy of the Mexican family that has caused the issues for the doctors to communicate. the cultural differences between America and Mexico such as offering importance to family than work by Mexican people may not be well understood by the American
From this particular culture patients may heavily rely on non-clinical healthcare practices. These practices may focus on traditional healers and folk medicine. These needs may be their religious beliefs, values, customs, culture, and diet that may affect the outcome of that individual patient’s treatment plan. All these factors can hinder the patient from getting medical attention and/or in seeing a doctor.
This culture is brought about due to my father being of European descent and my mother being from London, England. The biomedical model is predominantly concerned with the physical wellbeing of the person, whereas the indigenous health encompasses their physical, spiritual, social and environmental existence (Carey, 2013). My health beliefs are not solely based on western medicine as I do use alternate therapies before seeking a medical solution to the problem. These alternate therapies include heat, acupuncture and herbal remedies which are all tried before attending a traditional doctor. After trying these therapies if I still have a medical problem, I will then seek medical advice and receive biomedical
Cultural diversity is a society where there is a combination of different races, origins, religions, languages, gender, sexual orientation, age, and anything that makes people different from each other. It is what makes people unique from one another. In today’s health care field it is pertinent for the staff especially nurses who interact with many other people, to be culturally aware of their patients’ beliefs and backgrounds. When caring for a patient nurses should want to provide optimal care and knowing about a patients’ culture can help the nurse to not offend who they are taking care of along with giving the best care they can to decrease hospital stay time for the patient. In this paper I will discuss two cultures, German and Japanese, and will compare and contrast the two with their beliefs and values. Then I will discuss their beliefs with health care.
There are many cultures out in the world today that practice beliefs different than those in the United States. America is based off Western Culture and traditional medicine practices which focus on preventative and curative medicine. Most cultures around the world practice folk medicine, which focus more on the person as a whole with remedies and ceremonies rather than medicine and treatment. Even though each one believes in a different practice, all medical professionals should have the knowledge and awareness of each culture’s health beliefs to properly treat their patients in a respectful and kind