Culture may also affect the decision-making process. Cultural beliefs can affect how a patient will seek care and from whom, how he or she will manage self-care, how he will make health choices, and how she might respond to a specific therapy.
How does culture affect the medical field?
Nov 13, 2017 · Culture may also affect the decision-making process. Cultural beliefs can affect how a patient will seek care and from whom, how he or she will manage self-care, how he will make health choices, and how she might respond to a specific therapy. Cultural issues play a key role in compliance, which is a person’s willingness to adhere to the doctor’s recommendations.
How do cultural differences affect patients’ attitudes about medical care?
What is ‘culture’? Behaviors, beliefs, values Affects views about illness, pain, selecting medical care, complying with treatment Acculturation Degree to which a person maintains traditional beliefs of the ethnic group The Patient Self Determination Act Promotes education Presumes autonomy and self-determination
How does culture affect the decision-making process?
“Culture works at all levels,” says Dr. Arthur Kleinman, professor of medical anthropology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in the New York Times article, “ Bridging the Culture Gap.” “It affects health disparities, communication and interactions in the doctor-patient relationship, the illness experience, and health care outcomes.”
How do cultural differences affect family health decisions?
In addition, culture specific values influence patient roles and expectations, how much information about illness and treatment is desired, how death and dying will be managed, bereavement patterns, gender and family roles, and processes for decision making. Cross-cultural variations also exist within cultures.
How does culture affect decision-making?
Western researchers have largely assumed that people make decisions by following their own preferences and values, but people in many cultures discount personal preference and instead seek advice, at times deferring to others' preferences, especially when the perceived norm is to discount one's own desires (Savani et ...
How do cultural issues affect healthcare quality?
Cultural competence improves communication, which keeps patients safer. Clear communication allows healthcare providers to collect accurate medical information. It also encourages active dialogues in which patients and providers can ask questions, correct misunderstandings, and build trust.Mar 1, 2021
How does cultural diversity affect patient care?
Benefits of Diversity in Healthcare Increased provider comfort levels: Studies show that students who have trained at diverse schools are more comfortable treating patients from ethnic backgrounds other than their own. Boosted creativity and innovation: A wide range of perspectives can lead to better solutions.
Why is culture important in healthcare?
Why Is Cultural Respect Important? Cultural respect is critical to reducing health disparities. It helps improve access to high-quality health care that is respectful of and responsive to the needs of diverse patients.
How does culture affect health care?
The Influence of Culture on Health Care Decisions. Culture plays a huge role in medical interactions. It influences how an individual might view an illness or treatment, for example, and affects how a physician should address an older patient. Culture may also affect the decision-making process. Cultural beliefs can affect how a patient will seek ...
Why do cultures have beliefs?
All cultures have developed systems of beliefs to explain the cause of illness, how illness can be cured or treated, and who should be involved in the health care process. In other words, every culture has beliefs about health, disease, treatment, and health care providers.
What is cultural compliance?
Cultural issues play a key role in compliance, which is a person’s willingness to adhere to the doctor’s recommendations. Culture influences healthcare at all levels, including communications and interactions with doctors and nurses, health disparities, health care outcomes, and even the illness experience itself.
How does culture affect health?
Arthur Kleinman, professor of medical anthropology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in the New York Times article, “Bridging the Culture Gap.” “It affects health disparities, communication and interactions in the doctor-patient relationship, the illness experience, and health care outcomes.”
How to achieve cultural competency in medicine?
Awareness is the first step to achieving cultural competency in your practice. Doctors need to realize that they also bring their own cultural context to patient relationships, even if they don’t realize it. For example, in modern medicine, sometimes the focus can be more on the disease than the person with the illness.
How does culture influence patient roles and expectations?
In addition, culture specific values influence patient roles and expectations, how much information about illness and treatment is desired, how death and dying will be managed, bereavement patterns, gender and family roles, and processes for decision making. Cross-cultural variations also exist within cultures.
How do cultural differences affect patients?
Cultural differences affect patients‘ attitudes about medical care and their ability to understand, manage, and cope with the course of an illness, the meaning of a diagnosis, and the consequences of medical treatment. Patients and their families bring culture specific ideas and values related to concepts of health and illness, ...
Why do cultures have systems of health beliefs?
All cultures have systems of health beliefs to explain what causes illness, how it can be cured or treated, and who should be involved in the process. The extent to which patients perceive patient education as having cultural relevance for them can have a profound effect on their reception to information provided and their willingness to use it.
Why are some cultures reluctant to accept a diagnosis of severe emotional illness or mental retardation?
Some sub-populations of cultures, such as those from India and Pakistan, are reluctant to accept a diagnosis of severe emotional illness or mental retardation because it severely reduces the chances of other members of the family getting married. In Vietnamese culture, mystical beliefs explain physical and mental illness.
What do Native Americans believe?
Native Americans also place great value on family and spiritual beliefs. They believe that a state of health exists when a person lives in total harmony with nature. Illness is viewed not as an alteration in a person’s physiological state, but as an imbalance between the ill person and natural or supernatural forces.
Why is harmony important in Asian culture?
Among Asian cultures, maintaining harmony is an important value; therefore, there is a strong emphasis on avoiding conflict and direct confrontation. Due to respect for authority, disagreement with the recommendations of health care professionals is avoided.
Do Vietnamese accept Western mental health?
Vietnamese don’t readily accept Western mental health counseling and interventions, particularly when self-disclosure is expected. However, it is possible to accept assistance if trust has been gained. Russian immigrants frequently view U.S. medical care with a degree of mistrust.
How can culturally competent care improve patient quality and care outcomes?
Strategies to move health professionals and systems towards these goals include providing cultural competence training and developing policies and procedures that decrease barriers to providing culturally competent patient care .
Why is it important to include cultural and spiritual needs in healthcare?
It is important for healthcare to include the cultural and spiritual needs of the patient. Healthcare professionals should be empowered with the knowledge and skills to respond to the needs of patients and their families at an intensely stressful time.
Why is it important for healthcare professionals to recognize and accommodate the patient's religious and spiritual needs?
Many patient’s anxieties are reduced when they turn to their faith during healthcare challenges. Because many patients turn to their beliefs when difficult healthcare decisions are made , it is vital for healthcare professionals to recognize and accommodate the patient's religious and spiritual needs.
Why are healthcare providers developing strategies and techniques to respond to the religious and spiritual needs of patients and families?
Health systems and healthcare providers are developing strategies and techniques to respond to the religious and spiritual needs of patients and families for a number of reasons . One reason is that, in addition to TJC, state and federal guidelines encourage institutional responsiveness to population diversity.
How can culturally competent care be improved?
Culturally competent care can improve patient quality and care outcomes. Strategies to move health professionals and systems towards these goals include providing cultural competence training and developing policies and procedures that decrease barriers to providing culturally competent patient care. [1] [2] [3] [4]
What is cultural competence?
Cultural competence is the ability of health providers and organizations to deliver health care services that meet the cultural, social, and religious needs of patients and their families. Culturally competent care can improve patient quality and care outcomes. Strategies to move health professionals and systems towards these goals include ...
What happens if health care providers don't work together?
If providers and health care systems are not working together to provide culturally competent care, patients may have untoward health consequences, receive poor quality care, and be dissatisfied with the care they receive. The quality of patient-health professional interactions is decreased.
How do cultures differ in mental health?
Furthermore, cultures differ in the meaning and level of significance and concern they give to mental illness. Every culture has its own way of making sense of the highly subjective experience that is an understanding of one’s mental health. Each has its opinion on whether mental illness is real or imagined, an illness of the mind or ...
How does culture affect people?
For instance, culture affects the way in which people describe their symptoms, such as whether they choose to describe emotional or physical symptoms. Essentially, it dictates whether people selectively present symptoms in a “culturally appropriate” way that won’t reflect badly on them.
What are the factors that affect mental health?
However, mental illnesses and mental health in general are affected by the combination of biological and genetic factors, psychology, and society. This intersectionality is important, but the heavy influence of societal factors often goes ignored.
What is patient participation in healthcare?
Patient participation in health care decisions is a sign of valuing humanity and individuality of the patient. Today, patient participation is regarded as a legal right of the patient as well as an international gold standard for healthcare systems, and health professionals strive for this standard.
What is participation in sociology?
In various scientific fields, participation has different definitions. In sociology, participation means having a share in something, and benefiting from that share, or taking part in a group and thus collaborating with that group. In political sciences, participation means the following: if people do not feel distinct differences ...
Overview
Religion, culture, beliefs, and ethnic customs can influence how patients understand health concepts, how they take care of their health, and how they make decisions related to their health.
Track Your Progress
Before implementing this Tool, count the number of staff members who have completed a cultural competence training session. Repeat after 2, 6, and 12 months.
