Western Culture Essay

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Extended Essay Western Culture “Western culture, Western civilization (the modern culture of western Europe and North America)” (Princeton University). The definition of western culture is broad and can be applied to many different aspects of life. In the world of health care, western culture prevails when discussing end of life situations. The main focus of western communication in these situations is keeping trust between patients directly and communicating the situation with them in a clear but respectful manner (Hawryluck). According to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom most health and social care staff have received some basic, generic communication skills training for end of life communication. However seeing as end of life situations are one of the most intense and demanding situation of a health care professionals career to deal with, “most believe they would benefit from further training to address the challenging demands of conversations with people approaching the end of life” (NHS). One of the major factors in these discussions is the age of the patient in question. Since it’s not usual for a family member to die before they are old and considered elderly, different situations are in need of different responses. Especially in the case of a child, teenage, or any other death for people under the age of 60. The dialogue between the patient and doctor or any other health care official is greatly influenced if the patient is a minor or an adult. Conversation structure and even the person the professional is likely to have a conversation with might change. In the western world society tends to be split up into 3 major age groups; children and young adults (under 18 years of age), adults (19-60 years of age)... ... middle of paper ... ...e upon a painful treatment the child is in no position to tell them otherwise. “According to a traditional Confucian interpretation, a child who agrees to a parent’s refusal of treatment would be violating the principle of filial piety” (Bowman). This makes the children very inactive in their own situation’s outcome. Therefore children and doctors do not have a very direct relationship and the communication is left to be between the older people of the patient’s family and the doctor resulting in a more technically based and advanced language. Adults Adults are in eastern cultures the ones who keep family going. They have the task of disciplining their kids and running family businesses. However in the case of an end of life situation the whole family comes together to discuss how to handle it. Just like treating end of life situations with children the adult is

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