7 Ways Culture Influences Health Care
- Family and Community. Everyone retains certain beliefs as a result of family and community influences, especially in...
- Religion. For the truly zealous, religion is not just a hobby. It’s a way of life, and that can add barriers to...
- Perspectives on Death. This is not a question about life after death or funeral rituals,...
How does culture affect the medical field?
In other words, every culture has beliefs about health, disease, treatment, and health care providers. 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.
How does a patient’s cultural background affect health care?
A patient’s cultural background can have a profound impact on health care, and doctors need to be aware of this. More and more medical schools have integrated “cultural competency” into their curricula, reports the New York Times. Read on to find out more about how culture influences health beliefs, decision-making, and patient education.
How do culture and culture specific values influence patient care?
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.
How do you deal with patients from other cultures?
According to an article that I read about dealing with patients from other cultures, the best approach is to treat the medical process as like solving a problem by working alongside the patient and his/her family.
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.
What are the cultural practices that affect health?
These include initiation, birth and death rites; arranged marriages, female genital mutilation, circumcision and various iterations of cleansing rituals associated with the body and mind.
How does cultural identity affect healthcare?
Cultural health beliefs affect how people think and feel about their health and health problems, when and from whom they seek health care, and how they respond to recommendations for lifestyle change, health-care interventions, and treatment adherence.
What are cultural factors in healthcare?
Cultural factors affecting the medical encounter Spirituality, involvement of the patient's family in health care decision making and ethnicity‐based discrimination were specific to the non‐White groups. The role of a 'doctor culture' was mentioned by African–Americans and Whites, but not Latinos.
What are some cultural barriers in healthcare?
These include family roles, body language, concept of justice, notions of modesty, core values, family values, beliefs and assumptions, rules of conduct, expectations, gestures, and childrearing practices, all of which have been shown to influence our perception and approaches to health and medicine.
How does culture affect nursing care?
Cultural competence helps the nurse to understand, communicate, and interact with people effectively. More specifically, it centers around: Understanding the relationship between nurses and patients. Acquiring knowledge of various cultural practices and views of the world.
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.
What cultures refuse medical treatment?
Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Scientists are the two most common religious doctrines that may dictate treatment refusal, limitation, or preference for prayer.
How does culture affect health disparities?
Cultural disparities in healthcare happen within a mix of influences, including cultural incompetency, social inequality, the structure and function of communities of care, and the social conditions that undermine or enhance well-being.
How culture influences health in society?
Culture is deeply involved in matters of personal hygiene, nutrition, immunization, seeking early medical care, family planning -in short, the whole way of life. Different cultures are there in different societies which may or may not have positive effects on health.
What are the positive effects of culture on health?
Positive Effects Dr. Mackey sees many patients who identify strongly with cultural traditions and take great pride in belonging to a cultural group. This can help them in times of mental stress, depression, and anxiety. Many cultures have strong collectivist beliefs, or beliefs in providing community support.
How does culture affect us?
Our culture shapes the way we work and play, and it makes a difference in how we view ourselves and others. It affects our values—what we consider right and wrong. This is how the society we live in influences our choices.
What are 5 cultural practices?
ExamplesReligious and spiritual practices.Medical treatment practices.Forms of artistic expression.Dietary preferences and culinary practices.Cultural institutions (see also Cultural Institutions Studies)Natural resource management.Housing and construction.Childcare practices.More items...
What are the Filipino cultural practices?
5 Filipino Traditions: Four-Month Christmas, Competitive Karaoke, Bayanihan, and MoreCompetitive Karaoke.Bayanihan. Bayanihan.Fiestas. Fiestas.Four-month Christmas. Four-month Christmas.Filipinos love to eat. . . and drink! Filipinos love to eat. . . and drink!
What are the 10 factors that affect health?
Ten Factors that. Affect. Your Health Status.Heredity.Quality of the Environment.Random Events.Health Care.Behaviors You Choose.Quality of your Relationships.Decisions You Make.More items...
What are the 3 main factors that affect your health?
The determinants of health include:the social and economic environment,the physical environment, and.the person's individual characteristics and behaviours.
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.
What does cultural competency mean in healthcare?
What does this mean for healthcare providers? A patient’s cultural background can have a profound impact on health care, and doctors need to be aware of this. More and more medical schools have integrated “cultural competency” into their curricula, reports the New York Times. Read on to find out more about how culture influences health beliefs, decision-making, and patient education.
Does THC have a CME?
THC offers a number of tools and resources, including “A Physician’s Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care,” a self-directed online training course that qualifies for CME credits.
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, ...
What are the cultural beliefs of Asians?
There are several important cultural beliefs among Asians and Pacific Islanders that nurses should be aware of. The extended family has significant influence, and the oldest male in the family is often the decision maker and spokesperson. The interests and honor of the family are more important than those of individual family members. Older family members are respected, and their authority is often unquestioned. 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. However, lack of disagreement does not indicate that the patient and family agree with or will follow treatment recommendations. Among Chinese patients, because the behavior of the individual reflects on the family, mental illness or any behavior that indicates lack of self-control may produce shame and guilt. As a result, Chinese patients may be reluctant to discuss symptoms of mental illness or depression.
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.
What is the expectation of many health care professionals?
Unfortunately, the expectation of many health care professionals has been that patients will conform to mainstream values. Such expectations have frequently created barriers to care that have been compounded by differences in language and education between patients and providers from different backgrounds.
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 are the cultural aspects of Native Americans?
Cultural aspects common to Native Americans usually include being oriented in the present and valuing cooperation. 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. Native Americans may use a medicine man or woman, known as a shaman.
What are cultural issues in medication adhesion?
Cultural Issues in Medication Adherence: Disparities and Directions
How does unintentional bias affect healthcare?
A growing body of evidence indicates that unintentional biases on the part of healthcare providers may be an important factor contributing to disparities in healthcare.25 ,55Some research suggests that healthcare provider communication patterns during interactions with white patients differ from those with patients of color.55For example, in a study of patients with sickle cell disease (mean age, 34.5 years), patient perceptions of discrimination by medical professionals were associated with nonadherence to physician recommendations.27Additional studies have attempted to quantify differences in communication patterns between physicians and patients of color though audio- or videorecording of office visits. One key study using this approach found that primary care visits for black patients were characterized by more verbal dominance and statements of direction, and fewer attempts at patient-centered communication, compared to visits with white patients.56In one study, race concordance between physicians and patients was associated with longer visit length and more positive affect, but not with differences in communication patterns.57
What is adherence to medication?
Adherence has been defined as the “extent to which a person’s behavior (in terms of taking medications, following diets, or executing other lifestyle changes) coincides with the clinical prescription.”8Adherence to prescribed medications represents a complex series of decisions and behaviors,9and optimal adherence involves a number of necessary components. This process has been described in three phases.10Healthcare providers must prescribe a medication and clearly communicate its utility and appropriate use to the patient and family, and patients must then fill the prescription (initiation). Patients must then take the prescribed medication according to directions (implementation), and continue use as long as indicated, without premature termination (discontinuation).10
What causes medication adherence to be lower?
Low income, limited insurance coverage for outpatient medications, and higher out-of-pocket costs may also contribute to lower medication adherence.33This phenomenon has been termed “cost-related nonadherence,” and may disproportionately affect individuals from elderly and minority populations with limited incomes.34,35
How to measure medication adherence?
Adherence can be measured by self-report, by objective monitoring devices (e.g., medication event monitoring systems11), or by indirect methods such as bioassay (e.g., viral load).12Regardless of monitoring method, abundant evidence reveals that medication adherence is suboptimal across diseases and demographic groups (see Stirratt et al. in this collection13), and the availability of cross-culturally validated measures of adherence is limited. Adherence tends to be higher in diseases with greater perceived threat to health, such as HIV/AIDS and cancer, and lower for chronic conditions (e.g., asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], diabetes14).
What are the factors that affect medication adherence?
Adherence to medications is dependent upon a variety of factors, including individual characteristics of the patient, the patient’s family and culture, interactions with healthcare providers, and the healthcare system itself . Because of its association with worse outcomes, poor medication adherence is considered a potential contributor to disparities in health outcomes observed for various conditions across racial and ethnic groups. While there are no simple answers, it is clear that patient, provider, cultural, historical, and healthcare system factors all play a role in patterns of medication use. Here, we provide an overview of the interface between culture and medication adherence for chronic conditions; discuss medication adherence in the context of observed health disparities; provide examples of cultural issues in medication adherence at the individual, family, and healthcare system/provider level; review potential interventions to address cultural issues in medication use; and provide recommendations for future work.
What is the interplay of factors across multiple levels?
Interaction of factors across multiple levels predict disease management behavior and underlie disparities in healthcare access and health outcomes.
How does culture affect healthcare?
These include poor leadership or lack of leadership, employees who don’t feel empowered to make changes, constraints imposed by outside stakeholders, and differences in subcultures, such as between physicians and healthcare managers. Money can also be an issue. When profits drive a culture, patients can be left behind, and making the culture more patient-focused becomes difficult.
Why is culture important in healthcare?
From a patient perspective culture is important because it effects how they are treated, the experiences they have getting healthcare, and the outcomes of their treatment, even their overall wellness. Culture is what a healthcare organization does regularly and frequently, the behavior patterns that are consistent and that impact patients.
What is Healthcare Culture?
Organizational culture is a term that is used to describe many different aspects of how a company or group operates and the qualities or philosophies that dictate the behaviors of individuals within the group. The term is often used to describe companies, and that includes healthcare companies. Hospitals, medical centers, even doctor’s offices and insurance companies have a culture, whether it is formal and defined or more informal.
What is patient centered culture?
Organizations that truly focus on the patient have several factors in the culture that put the patient first: being kind and compassionate to patients, respecting patients and their individual cultures, keeping patients informed and educated, making enough time for patients, and others.
Why is it important to change healthcare culture?
This is a cultural shift that is beneficial to patients because it improves communication, a major barrier to safety, and because it puts more minds to work on each patient issue. It also helps to manage care continuation more smoothly and efficiently.
What is the culture of a hospital?
The culture of a healthcare setting can be a deciding factor in where you receive medical care. Patients can choose between a hospital that prioritizes patient autonomy and safety, for example, or a hospital in which the culture is more traditional and keeps patients further outside the care decision-making process.
What is paternalistic culture in medical care?
This means that the doctors acted like father figures, telling patients what was best for them. This was done without giving patients information or allowing them any level of autonomy or ability to make decisions.
Why is it important to be aware of cultural differences?
Now when it comes to medical treatment, it’s important that health care professionals be aware of the cultural differences. It’s important for them to be aware because you don’t want to accidentally offend any one, you want to be accepting of their beliefs, and you want to properly treat their ailments.
What should a medical provider do when working with a new patient?
The very first thing a medical care provider should do when working with a new patient is first communicating with the family or the individual and getting insight into their cultural background. Just because you have a patient that is of Asian descent does not mean that they are culturally orientated that way.
Do we need to be conscious of other cultures?
Some interesting information. I would agree that we need to be conscious of other peoples culture and beliefs. But we need to remember not to sacrifice our own values to accommodate theirs.
Do medical professionals need to communicate?
I agree, medical professionals need to work with their patients and try to communicate across cultures to not only properly diagnose them, but provide them with treatment that they won’t reject.
