Coining

When someone has a cold or a headache, what are the common cures that come to mind? In Western cultures, some common cures may include drinking fluids, getting more rest, taking over the counter medications, and eating soup. In Southeast Asian cultures, coining is a very popular home therapy used to relieve colds and headaches. Coining involve using a coin dipped with hot balm oil to rub back and forth repeatedly on skin to create a redden color bruise (Nguyen, 1985). This technique is believed to release all bad energy from the bodies and help cure illnesses of those feeling sick. Typically in Western medicine, coining is not view as a health benefit, but as healthcare providers, it is important to interject different health beliefs from patients in which we are caring for.

Health Belief

Growing up in a traditional Vietnamese family, I have witnessed my grandmother and parents perform coining among each other and other relatives. The first time I witnessed this coining technique was when I was in elementary school. I remember coming home from school to my grandmother coining my mom’s back. At first I didn’t know what she was doing and thought something bad had happened to my mom. My grandma explained that my mom has a cold because she has trung gio, which in English is translated to she has caught the wind. My grandma further explained she is performing coining or in our culture it is known as cao gio to make my mom feel better. Cao gio in English is translated to she is scraping the wind. According to my grandma, this traditional health belief has been effective in relieving cold and headache symptoms and has been passed on in my family for many generations. For most of my childhood, I did not recall anyone in my f...

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...; it will definitely affect my nursing practice in the future. It will affect my nursing practice in a sense that I can’t force my patients to be compliance at home with what I teach them. For instance if I happen to be caring for someone from the Southeast Asian population, they might also be non-compliance with taking their medications on time to maintain their health. As a nurse, I would definitely talk to them and try to figure out the reasons why they are not keeping up with the medication and if there was anything I can do to ensure they will be compliance. It will be important that I try to incorporate their health beliefs along with Western medicine to ensure the needs of the patients are met. It will be challenging but coming from a similar health belief background, I will be much more aware of their health tendencies and more sympathetic to their needs.