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Health literacy case study essay
Health literacy case study essay
The Role of Culture in Health Care Delivery
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Communication is the backbone of progress. Therefore to change, adapt, or develop requires the assimilation of the spirit and artful skills of communication (Gregory Dawes, 2001). I will first define how language differences lead to barriers in communication and along with it a case study of Pediatricians and Spanish-speaking mothers. It will then describe as to what can be done to overcome this barrier. Furthermore, I will discuss on the cultural barrier to the health system with an example of a West African culture. Moreover, the definition of Health literacy, which is the last barrier that I will include will be explained along with some conclusions the NAAL has measured. I will discuss the points as to how these three major reasons could …show more content…
More than 20 million people in the U.S are not capable in English. This limited ability of them isn’t enough to communicate about the symptoms with healthcare providers might lead to a stage for inadequate and maybe to a fatal treatment. Hospitals situated in California, Texas, and Mexico, appoints translators to act as a bridge between patients and doctors. Some healthcare systems however, are not fortunate enough to do this (Blog.healthcareerweb.com, 2016). Research mention that communication failures between the patient and healthcare professionals contribute to conflicting events and medical faults. Linguistic diversification within the United State presently is much greater than n the whole of Europe. In the vast growth of the populations with LEP is being a new problem where there are only few doctors to handle these risky situations. Generally, people who are recruited to help patients communicate with caregivers are not trained interpreters; instead, they are the family members, non-fluent healthcare professional untrained non clinical employees or the fellow patients themselves. Certainly, interpretation mistakes undergo many preventable results in …show more content…
Consider how your own cultural beliefs, values and behaviors may affect interactions with patients. If you suspect an interaction has been adversely affected by cultural bias – your own or your patient’s – consider seeking help. Respect, understand and work with differing cultural perceptions of effective or appropriate treatment. Ask about and record how your patients like to receive health care and treatment information (Society,
There is considerable evidence of the Lee’s having both low print and oral literacy. The Lee’s spoke very little English; they also were illiterate in both English and Hmong (Faidman, 1997). Another contributing factor to their health literacy was their beliefs about medicine. Because of the dissonance between the Lee’s beliefs and the American medical system, it was unclear if the Lee’s fully understood the cause of Lia’s epilepsy or the purpose of her prescribed medication. Their motivation to learn may also have been a factor; they believed they already knew what caused Lia’s epilepsy and what healing she needed. Faidman describes cases of successfully communicating western medical ideals with Hmong people, but Lia’s case is not an example of effective cross-cultural understanding. The Lee’s low level of health literacy severely impacted their ability to successfully understand and administer Lia’s medication, which may have negatively affected her health outcomes. Some strategies to improve communication suggested by Egbert and Nanna (2009) that may have helped the Lee’s include using plain language that is culturally sensitive, spending more time with the patient to ensure understanding, and using a, “...teach-back method, in which patients repeat back to the provider the information they believe they have just
...ulture is changing, Hmong are not all the same, importance of family, privacy issues, mental health issues, and small talk is important (Barrett et al., 1998, 181-182) . Overall, Barrett and others concluded that in order to improve interaction between patient and doctor all they have to do is follow these easy steps. First, is to be kind and have a positive attitude towards the patient and interpreter. Second, learn about each other’s cultures prior to meeting, to better understand each other. Third, better explain diagnosis and treatment options to patients. Fourth, improve translation providers need to get better interpreters who could concisely explain the consultation. Fifth, involve the family to make more thorough decisions. Sixth, respect patient’s decisions and there are still other alternatives to improve interaction (Barrett et al., 1998, 182-183).
Nearly all Haitian immigrants entering the U.S. are poorly educated, illiterate, and speak only Creole, which is seldom seen in written form. Creole is a “pidgin” language, meaning it is a simplified form of a base language with parts of other languages added. These types of languages were frequently used by sailors, pirates, and other trade people to accommodate the span of communication needs they faced. Haitian Creole is thought to have been derived by combining various native African dialects with the French language of their owners. Very few Haitians (10%) can actually speak French, and one’s ability to do so is seen as an indicator of social class. Because of Haitian views that Creole is the language used by the poor and uneducated, many will claim to be able to speak French and become insulted if it is suggested that they speak Creole. This can pose a problem for the healthcare worker trying to find a way to communicate. Often the only interpreters available to a family are their children who have learned English in schools here. This can create conflict within the family therefore a facility provided interpreter usually produces a better outcome. Written materials are often of no use to the Haitian immigrant.
In my life I have seen how even while speaking the same language there can be communication problems. Adding the inability to speck the same language and then the complexity of describing medical conditions, I can see how the situation could turn out poorly and cause troubling effects. This chapter has helped me better understand why the Hmon...
The goal of this lesson is to explore how we can improve communication to eliminate language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in our organization and to establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, that provide safe, equal, and quality care to all our clients regardless of race, ethnic, or socioeconomic status. At the end of this lesson we should be
Goode, T. D., Dunne, M. C., & Bronheim, S. M. (2006). The evidence base for cultural and linguisitc competence in healthcare. The Commonweatlh Fund , 1-46.
The top priority of the medical interpreters is removing language barrier between the medical practitioners and the patients and helping the patients to treat properly. Indeed, impartiality can be challenged in medical setting. However, some articles are pointed out that the interpreter who is related to the patient is not always harmful to the patients and the medical practitioners. Therefore, when the medical interpreters take an assignment, they should consider what the best is for the patients and the medical practitioners.
Culture as described by Brislin [1], as the totality of learned behaviors of people that emerges from their interpersonal interactions.
Going to a different country or area of the world can open up anybody’s eyes to see that culture makes a huge impact on the understanding and practices of healthcare that seem to be so common to other areas of the world. When a person lives in one country their whole life, that person may not realize how different the life they live is from someone in a foreign country. If a person is going to receive treatment from someone with a different cultural background, they should be expected to get treatment to respects their own culture. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences having such a diverse variety of students has their own cultural competency definition that states “effectively and comfortably communicate across cultures with patients of differing backgrounds, taking into account aspects of trust in order to adopt mutually acceptable objectives and measures”. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler, the issue of culture and healthcare are greatly prevalent. Katherine Dettwyler herself goes to West Africa as an anthropologist and her horizons are broadened when during her research she comes in contact with how much culture has an impact on healthcare and everyday life.
These differences in origin accounts for diversity in socio-cultural backgrounds and nurses must develop the knowledge and the skills to engage patients from different cultures and to understand the beliefs and the values of those cultures (Jarvis, 2012). If healthcare professionals focus only on a narrowly defined biomedical approach to the treatment of disease, they will often misunderstand their patients, miss valuable diagnostic cues, and experience higher rates of patient noncompliance with therapies. Thus, it is important for a nurse to know what sociocultural background a patient is coming from in order to deliver safe an effective
Due to America’s diverse population, a language barrier has developed between people of different race. The language barrier has caused numerous fatal accidents. Exhibiting lack of communication skills can not only play an essential role in fatal accidents but also prevent individuals for receiving the proper care after an accident has occurred(Brice). If the medical care provider and the patient cannot communicate effectively then the patient is unable to receive the proper treatment for his or her injuries. Speaking one language can cause society to develop effective communication skills, which can prevent unnecessary accidents from occurring (Dowd).
In the clinical setting, nurses are believed to spend the most time with patients. This involves regularly dealing with people coming from different ethnicities and with different cultural practices and beliefs (Brown & Edwards, 2012). Given this cultural diversity, every patient may have his/her own cultural beliefs and practices regarding his/her own health and its treatment which can be similar or different to those ... ... middle of paper ... ... nternational Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8(5), 491-497.
This causes problems about the diagnosis as well as how nurses may tell patients about issues with their care. A way a nurse can overcome this is by having an interpreter when they know that a patient doesn’t know English, but this is not always the case for most nurses as there are not a lot of interpreters around. In health practice language isn’t always to do with culture but it can be the way a nurse or doctor speaks to the patients so they may adopt certain types of jargon and the patients may feel intimidated. Madeleine Leininger, who is the founder of transcultural nursing, says that providing competent care across all cultures and to be customized to fit patient’s different beliefs and traditions and different languages that a patient may speak. Divi et al (2007) claims that language barriers increase the risk of patient care and safety as they will find it difficult to understand what is going on with their care, so it is important for patients to have access to language services such as an
Cultural blindness can lead to misconceptions and the inability to treat patients efficiently. Culture, religion, beliefs, values, social economic standings, education, mentality, morals, and treatment are all different from person to person, community, and groups. These barriers can be overcome by treating each patient as a unique individual and seeking to learn about cultural beliefs and differences, without reservations or pre-judgments but with an open and willing mind. These inhibiting barriers can be crossed through acceptance and commonality can be established. Through Patient-centered communication and attentiveness to the patients’ interpretation, discussion of lifestyle and treatment choices in an open and non-judgmental manner, and understanding of patient views, concerns and information needs can lead to cultural sensitivity and appreciation (Dean, R,
Understanding cultural differences not only improves the effectiveness of the treatment the patient receives, it is also help the nurse to prevent negliency of care. It is impostant to maintain a curiosity about each patient no matter how much we know abouth that person's culture.