More handpicked essays just for you.
Cultural Diversity in Healthcare Quizlet
Advantages and disadvantages of modern and traditional medicine
Culture diversity strengths in the healthcare field
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Traditional Medicine: A Modern Context
Modern medicine is finally starting to accommodate traditional medicine, though traditional medicine is still overlooked or regarded as a primitive form of treatment, providing nothing but placebo effects. According to the American National Cancer Institute, modern medicine is:
A system in which medical doctors and other healthcare professionals (such as nurses, pharmacists, and therapists) treat symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation, or surgery. (NCI, para. 1)
On the other hand, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as:
The sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable
Chinese-American Charles Feng (2012) remarks in the peer-reviewed Journal of Young Investigators, that traditional medicine differs vastly in its philosophy from allopathic medicine, and the combination of traditional and allopathic medicine is more effective than either independent healthcare system (para. 17). The integration of traditional medicine causes doctors to become familiar with strong and weak facets of either system, and expand their understanding of their patient’s health and treatment (para.
According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), the world 's largest plant conservation network, the primary form of health care for five billion people is traditional plant-based medicine (Hawkins, 2006, p. 3). This population is mainly concentrated in the developing world. In Africa, 80% of the population relies primarily on traditional medicine, because allopathic healthcare systems are out of reach, both through distance and cost (Elujoba, 2005, para. 4). Anthony Elujoba, a professor of Pharmacognosy at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, argues that an “[e]ffective health agenda for the African continent can never be achieved by orthodox medicine alone unless it is complemented by traditional medicine practice” (para. 4). Institutionalizing traditional medicine would provide more funding for doctors who practice traditional medicine, allowing them to improve facilities and treatment. Countries that do not have access to mainstream health care must integrate traditional medicine into healthcare systems to provide support for the industry, while continuing to make mainstream healthcare a
pp. 41-84. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Pigg, Stacy Leigh. (1997) "Found in Most Traditional Societies: Traditional Medical Practitioners between Culture and Development.”
Herbal medicine has been around for thousands of years. “The ancient Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Native Americans were all herbalists”(Herbs Friends of Physicians). The ancient Greeks and Romans were also herbalists (Herbs Friends of Physicians). Traditional medicine was the dominant medical system used in both rural and urban areas until the arrival of Europeans changed the medical
Illness was treated in many ways but the main goal was to achieve a sense of balance and harmony.(p82). Applications of herbs and roots, spiritual intervention, and community wide ritual and ceremonies were all therapeutic practices.(p71). “It was the healer who held the keys to the supernatural and natural worlds and who interpreted signs, diagnosed disease and provided medicines from the grassland, woodland, and parkland pharmacopoeia.”(p18). The healers knowledge of herbs and roots and ways to administer and diagnose had been passed down from generation to generation.(p85). Healers stood as an advantage for the Aboriginal people. “Trust and a personal relationships would naturally build between the patient and the healer.”(p77). This must have ...
Those Yoruba’s who have traveled out of their culture to different parts of the world happen to be the ones among them who believe in western medicine. Furthermore, they traditional Rural Yoruba’s do not actually trust the western medicine. In the rural parts of the Yoruba culture, western medicine is seen as a challenge to gods, and also a threat to their culture. The Traditional rural Yoruba’s don’t believe that any other medicine can cure any sickness that their traditional medicine could not cure. Which makes them to see the western medicine intimidating. The Yoruba’s are the main ethnic group in the states of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo, which are subdivisions of Nigeria; they also constitute a sizable proportion of Kwara and Kogi States as well as Edo State (Yoruba People, 2010).
Throughout time, mankind has persistently been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness whether physical, spiritual or mental. There has always been evidence of spiritual healing and it will continue to be an important part of any healing process, large or small. In particular, the roots of Native American Medicine men (often a woman in some cultures) may be traced back to ancient times referred to as Shaman. A special type of healer used by the Indians is referred to as a medicine man (comes from the French word medecin, meaning doctor).
The famous spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "Homeopathy cures a greater percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Homeopathy is the latest, most refined method of treating patients economically and non-violently” (Malik). However, Homeopathy is only one of the many natural forms of treatment that patients are utilizing in an effort to avoid conventional medicine. A clinic practice model that combines conventional medicine with Naturopathic, Complementary and other forms of alternative medicine all in one setting, is the new health paradigm called Integrative Medicine. With the public’s growing concern of being over-medicated by costly and sometimes violent conventional medicine, I am going to explain the movement towards
Folk medicine is an important aspect of the Appalachian region. According to Mathews, folk medicine is known in involving diseases or illnesses “which are the products of indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived from the conceptual framework of modern medicine” (Mathews 1). Folk or traditional medicine is found in all societies, throughout in history, and predates innovation of modern medicine. Folk medicine also explains roles for “indigenous practitioners”(1) who treat and restore health for the individual and community. Folk medicine beliefs and practices serve for the treatment and prevention of aliments and are resistant to change even when the cultural tradition may have gone extinct.
The philosophy and practice is composed of many different systems of traditional medicine, which are all influenced by prevailing conditions, environment, and geographic area within, where it first evolved into WHO (2005). Although it is a common
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) differ from each other in many ways. TCM favors a holistic approach, views the universe and body philosophically and develops inductive tools and methods to guide restoring the total balance of the body. In Chinese medicine, the correct balance between Yin and Yang make up the vital energy, Qi, an essential life-sustaining substance of which all things are made. Some Traditional remedies include herbal medicines, acupuncture, massage and moxibustion, an herbal heat therapy. Western medicine is closely linked to the scientific method and emphasizes biochemical processes causes disease, its treatment and health. This form of treatment views all medical phenomena as cause-effect sequences and relies on drugs, radiation and surgery to alleviate symptoms and cure diseases. As you see, the two types of medicine are completely challenged differently depending on the doctor, the diagnosis, and the treatment options. All of these are completely different when compared with each other.
The knowledge Native peoples have gained over generations of trial and error about what different species of plants do medically far exceeds what modern drug companies know about them. For instance, Natives in Latin America knew the uses of what is now known to be Vitamin C, and they knew that it could be found in the barks of certain trees, leafy plants, and even mosses that are totally different from each other in appearance. Currently, there is a great deal of interest among natural scientists and drug researchers in Native American traditions of medicine, especially regarding their knowledge and use of drugs. Since anthropologists began documenting Native people’s use of plants for healing, they have been responsible for contributing
Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Introduction [NCCAM Backgrounder]. (n.d.).National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine [NCCAM] - nccam.nih.gov Home Page. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/chinesemed.htm
When you are sick you take medicine, but there are many remedies for the same problems. The use of herbal remedies traces back to the Chinese in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well by a compiled book in China written back more than 2,000 years ago (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Modern medicine has roots that are more recent in the development and production of synthesize drugs (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). The old generations took herbal remedies to improve their health, but now as time and people, progressed modern medicine comes on top. Herbal and modern medicines have good and bad points, but one has qualities that are more effective.
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.
Frequently a person believes that herbal medicine is more naturally safe and soothing than drugs. Nevertheless, there’s no reasonable defense about this. Though many consumers trusted herbal medicine much more than the synthetic medicine because it’s safe and effective, but like anything else, it has its own limitations too. There are several hostile issues related to herbal medicine that has been quite alarming. Notwithstanding, majority of the most popular herbs are at least nearly safe.