Health Care Cultural Analysis

An often overlooked setting where many cultural misunderstandings take place is the area of healthcare. While many medical professionals look at their care as straightforward involving multiple cultures necessitates situational analysis. Many problems come from assumptions in normalcy and not understanding cultural differences. This paper looks at a three specific areas culture is overlooked in healthcare.

Understanding what is communicated by a patient coming in with or without a family member or friend will tell you a bit about their culture and who they are. In individualistic cultures, most patients will come in alone and expect their privacy to be protected. However, in collectivistic cultures, many family members will accompany the patient. The attending physician needs to recognize the necessity of keeping the family informed even sometimes before the patient so they can properly prepare for whatever treatment may be needed.

Therefore not accounting these and other cultural understandings into one’s practice can cause problems for both the patient and doctor. For some, telling their family will be seen as a violation of privacy and for others, this is welcomed. Yet, failing to tell a family can be detrimental as many have a sense of connectedness that makes them feel bad when the patient does and feel better when they are too. …show more content…
Though the logical thought is the doctor is knowledgeable and wants to help, that does not mean everyone will freely share. An issue for some relates to sharing information to or for someone of the opposite gender. Some cultures regulate only sharing private information and being seen by someone of the same gender, thus walking into a clinic where the first available doctor see you, could be alarming and a cause for protest. Additionally, some cultures are not allowed to talk about the opposite genders more private body parts so a lack of communication clarity arises