Foua and Nao Kao believed that the reason a Hmong person would fall ill, was because a “dab” had stole their soul. Doctors in Merceds didn’t understand this concept and that is why Lee’s felt many Hmong patients didn’t have good health outcomes. I got the impression that many of the individuals involved in the care of Lia and her family, put up a wall before they even entered the situation. There was a blatant lack of communication and understanding about the Hmong values and beliefs, which lead to ineffective care for Lia. Both the Lees and the American doctors were doing what they believed was best. Unfortunately, the cultural barriers that were created between these two groups didn’t allow for many positive outcomes. Preconceived notions …show more content…
Lia was prescribed numerous different medications, and these medications were changed multiple times. They came in many different forms, some needing to be measured or split to meet Lias prescribed dose. There were many posed barriers for the Lees when it came to medication administration. During the beginning, the doctors at MCMC didn’t recognized that the Lees may not be providing Lia with her prescribed medication. Her “first few prescriptions simply read “take as directed”’ (p.47). As mentioned earlier, the Hmong didn’t have the same concept of medication as Americans did. Neil and Peggy, felt that Nao Kao was being “deliberately deceitful” (p.47) and that Foua was “either very stupid or loonybird” (p.47). Although both Neil and Peggy and the Lees were trying to do what was best for Lia, there was a large cultural barrier that was inflicting this effort. Neil and Peggy acknowledged that they didn’t know how to communicate to the Lees, but made little effort to be sensitive to it this problem, nor did they try to understand. This situation led to sub therapeutic levels of medications in Lias blood, and a continuation of
All informants and sources are listed according to the chapters in which they contributed. Her major helpers, such as her interpreter, the Lees, the doctors who treated Lia, and a few others, have a special thanks from the author at the beginning of this section. Fadiman consulted a vast array of sources from both perspectives of Lia’s story. She also read nearly all of the available literature about the Hmong at that time, which admittedly was not abundant compared to now. Overall, those she spoke to seemed to be open and willing to talk about what had happened. The doctors freely admitted mistakes they made or may have made, and showed an interest in learning where they went wrong so that they could avoid any future
Perhaps the greatest problem faced throughout this tale was that of miscommunication. The Merced Community Medical Center or MCMC for short was the place where Lia was being treated. This hospital was the Merced county's only hospital and unlike most rural county hospital it is state of the art, ."..42,000-square foot wing ... that houses coronary care, intensive care, and transitional care units; 154 medical and surgical beds...."3 This was a teaching hospital made up of interns mostly, but also with some great doctors like Peggy Philp and Neil Ernst. Peggy and Neil are married and have children. They graduated together at the top of their class, and have created quite a practice for themselves. Although MCMC is a great rural hospital, it also has the same problems as most rural hospitals do which is the health care crunch, where most of the money goes to the urban hospitals and then the leftover money is spread among th...
In The Latehomecomer, by Kao Kalia Yang shares her story and the story of her family’s search for a home and identity. Her family’s story voices the story of the Hmong people and their plight. From every stage of their journey, from the mountainous jungles of Southeast Asia to the freezing winter of Minnesota, Yang and the Hmong were compelled to redefine their identity, willingly or unwillingly. While growing up, Yang’s parents would often ask her, “’What are you?’ and the right answer was always, ‘I am Hmong.’” (Yang, 1) For “Hmong” to be the right answer, then what does it mean to be “Hmong”? From the personal story shared by Yang, and the universal story of the Hmong people, the Hmong identity cannot be contained in
...ation could have been improved between doctors and patients in simple ways. Interpreters were used and children went to school and helped translate for family members. These helped communication somewhat, but it wasn’t enough. There may not have been any other way to help, but some people tried to and doctors tried to be patient with the Hmong to understand what they wanted and to make them understand what was going on.
In the book The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, ethnocentrism can also be seen. Throughout the book the family and the doctors have different ideas of medicine/healing techniques are often disagreed on. It’s important for the doctor to see that biomedicine has its own intentions of saving patient through standard procedures and beliefs. Understanding those terms will shed some light on the culture of the patient, which has their own intentions, beliefs, and rules as well. Breaking down ethnocentrism to find an agreement is a good goal to accomplish in order have successful prognosis and healing. In addition, shedding the ethnocentrism will allow the doctors to see the different cultural beliefs and not judge right away. Although, some cultural remedies may not always work, it’s wrong for people to have the mindset of ethnocentrism without even considering their beliefs first.
As part of my Culture, Health and Illness class, I undertook a critical analysis of the book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures” by Anne Fadiman. This book was published in 1997, and documents the struggle of a Hmong family from Laos in communicating with and understanding the American health system.
Though Lia’s parents and her doctors wanted the best for her, the above barriers were creating a hindrance to her treatment. They both were not understanding each other and the interpreter was also not there, doctors wanted to transfer her to another best hospital because they were not getting with her disease but her parents misunderstood the situation and thought they were shifting her for their own benefit. In expansion to these convictions, Hmong likewise have numerous traditions and folks that are negotiated by those of the American standard and therapeutic groups; for instance, some Hmong customarily perform custom creature sacrifice and in view of extremely particular entombment customs and the alarm of every human's numerous souls potentially getting away from, the accepted Hmong convictions don't consider anybody experiencing obtrusive restorative surgery. The Hmong medicinal framework is dependent upon nature-based hypothesis that lets life stream as it may be, while the western restorative framework is dependent upon the modernized humanism-based medicinal science. So when Lia was dealt with by the American specialist with western pharmaceutical, Lia's guardians don't concur with them....
The Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam and Laos, greatly value their culture and traditions. The film “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America” documents the seventeen year journey of the Hmong Shaman, Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America. This film shows the struggle of Paja Thao to maintain their 5000 year-old shamanic traditions as his children embrace the American culture. Moreover, the film shows that one of the major problems refugees like Paja Thao and his family face upon their arrival to the United States is conflict with the American medical system. Despite the dominant biomedical model of health, the film “The Split Horn” shows that
...mprovement in communication between the healthcare team responsible for Josie's care and through healthcare providers providing increased advocacy for patient safety. Moral courage did not play a role in Josie's medical care because the nurse administered the methadone to her despite her mother's wishes and had caused her a life-threatening complication. Pain, suffering, and compassion were all relevant to Josie's case. I learned a lot by reading Josie's Story which includes the importance of patient advocacy, communication between healthcare professionals, and the disclosure of adverse events. I was thoroughly enjoyed reading this story because it helped me to understand my role as a healthcare provider in advocating for patient safety and reducing medical errors. I plan to use everything that I learned from this story to implement into my future nursing practice.
The Hmong culture is firmly rooted in their spiritual belief of animism, ancestral worship and reincarnation. These beliefs connect them to their sense of health and well-being. They view illness as having either a natural or a spiritual cause. A spiritual cause results in a “loss of souls” or is an action or misdeed that may have offended an ancestor’s spirit (California Department of Health Services, 2004, Purnell, 2013, p. 317). The soul escapes the body and may not be able to find its way back home. The Hmong also believe that a combination of natural and supernatural cause’s results in illness, and spells or curses, violation of taboos, accidents, fright, and infectious disease are other causes for illness (Centers for Disease Control
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In today’s complex and high pace health systems, the power of the individual is entirely ineffective compared to that of a highly efficient and collaborative team. However, these professional healthcare organization systems can be tarnished by the presence of “tribes” among nurses, physicians, students, and etcetera. “Tribal culture” is literally a metaphor for groups that emphasize the exclusion of outside members into their “cliques.” In the movie “The Faces of Medical Error…from tears to transparency – The Story of Lewis Blackman”, there was a lack of communication and no transparency between different departments of the hospital. In Blackman’s case, the tribal culture led to the nurses failing to communicate vital health information to the physicians and patients, which eventually led to Blackmans death. So whether there are cliques of nurses, physicians, or even sub groups within each, the presence of them suppresses teamwork and collaboration. This will ultimately lead to compromised patient care, disgruntled staff, and high nurse turnover. Hook your themes here.
Culture, it can be defined as integrated pattern of knowledge, from values and behaviors to religions and ethics. Although, there are many different culture, there are some similarity between various culture. Vishal Boughen, he is currently around the age of 30-40 and is currently attending CSU, Fresno. The first time I met Vishal was in the fraternity that we are apart of. Vishal was born in Santa Clara, California, with an ethnic background of Asian-India. As a child, Vishal’s parents were strict with his behavior and actions. I, personally, can understand how Vishal felt as he was young, my parents were strict, but they were lenient with my social life. However, we grew up with different religion. Vishal was raised with a Roman Catholic
Patients have the right to autonomy as a principle of ethics. The physician should not have discussed cultural differences within ear shot of patients. One never knows what cultural beliefs a patient practices. Most western physicians do not have a full understanding of traditional healing to Native American patients unless they live in an area with a large population. “Healthcare professionals must consider the patients decision to implement the treatment plan and the appropriate authorization.”
Asian Values: Do they exist? On the face of it, the existence of ‘Asian Values’ seems illusory. After the humiliation of the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, the sounding of the death knell for the Asian-values debate seemed imminent.