Filipino American Culture: A Case Study

In order to provide complete healthcare, healthcare workers must be not only technically competent with respect to skills and training, but also they must be culturally sensitive to allow them to identify the best way both to diagnose and to treat their patients. For example, in some cultures looking down while speaking is an indication of not being forthcoming with facts while in other cultures it is a sign of respect to the listener. If a healthcare worker did not understand the difference, the timeliness and quality of care could suffer for that patient as the provider might do unnecessary tests or wait for confirming information believing that the patient was hiding facts. This paper will discuss the culture of the Filipino peoples as …show more content…
At the same time, this autonomy was not acceptable to be acknowledged throughout the society (Roces, 2015, p. 203). This could impact providing services to this population, specifically females, in that they may not be willing to discuss their sexuality and/or sexual activities in the presence of male relatives but may be comfortable doing so around other females. However, a more recent Filipino American female (whose family immigrated post 1990) will not have experienced this sexual autonomy in any context. The societal expectations for her would be to be chaste until marriage and not to experience sexuality in any meaningful way (Roces, 2015, p. 193). This could lead her to be less revealing of her sexuality and/or sexual activities regardless of the audience and communication with that population will need to understand the reservations about discussing sexuality that may be felt by the patient. Knowing these differences about communication relating to sexuality and/or sexual acts will help providers as they seek to understand broader societal trends with respect to communicating amongst the Filipino American