Hi Jessica!
I can relate to lack of exposure to different cultures. I have only recently been exposed to the mass variety of different cultures through classmates, teachers, and courses at Mizzou. Several of my classes have prepared me for working with individuals with different cultures. My food and culture class prepared me for accommodating individuals dietary needs and understanding body language. I am also glad to say I have never had conflict with another person over culture. I am always interested to learn more about new cultures. Jessica, like you, I have also had a difficult time understanding others from another culture. I think that this is the biggest barrier when it comes to understanding other cultures. Being patient and respectful …show more content…
Initially, if I was the doctor for Lia, I would be frustrated. The language barrier and deteriorating patience for the family because of lack of adherence would cause me to be frustrated. However, now that I have read the book, I have become more understanding of the Hmong culture. It is very interesting and I even shared the story with my father who is reading the book now. The Hmong culture had poor experience with the American health care system (Fadiman, 2012, p. 42). Hmong valued healing, spending time with the weak, not asking questions, being kind, and quickly came to a diagnosis; however, the western way of medicine meant that doctors spent little time with their patients, forced the patients to come to the hospital, ask invasive, perhaps rude questions, and required tests and evidence to come to a diagnosis (Fadiman, 2012, p. 42). Knowing what the culture values and how the community handles illness would allow me to be calm, spend more time with the family, and inform the family why we do the tests. After reading the book, I also understand that the family sees epilepsy as a gift (Fadiman, 2012, p. 39). As a doctor, I would explain the consequences of not adhering to the medication; thus, allowing the family to know how severe the illness is, but I would tell the family they can also continue some of the rituals, such as washing Lia’s body in herbs (Fadiman, 2012, p. 194). By …show more content…
I am open to trying different remedies for health benefits. I believe that trying less invasive strategies are the best way to prevent expensive health expenses. It is worth the extra time to do a non-invasive approach to prevent using medication and having surgeries. Before I read the book, I questioned why people from other cultures don’t prefer the western way of medicine. Doesn’t the western way yield better results? After beginning to read the book, I saw the importance of healing traditions. The healing traditions provided a connection to the past and their culture. The Hmong was open towards the idea of using medicine, but they wanted to also provide healing for Lia’s soul. The family explained, “a little medicine and a little neeb (healing spirit)” (Fadiman, 2012, p. 113). However, if the family wants to limit the medicine, then it may hurt the patient, so I believe it is important to allow as much medicine as needed and as much neeb the family thinks is needed. The family explained the healing spirit is needed to get rid of the harmful dabs, which causes sickness (Fadiman, 2012, p. 113). It is important for the Hmong people to remain healthy because of correlation between sickness and bad spirits. I think that by using western and non-western medicine allows a combination of culture values and modernized medicine to work together to meet a common goal- good
I can relate to lack of exposure to different cultures. I have only recently been exposed to the mass variety of different cultures through classmates, teachers, and courses at Mizzou. Several of my classes have prepared me for working with individuals with different cultures. My food and culture class prepared me for accommodating individuals dietary needs and understanding body language. I am also glad to say I have never had conflict with another person over culture. I am always interested to learn more about new cultures. Jessica, like you, I have also had a difficult time understanding others from another culture. I think that this is the biggest barrier when it comes to understanding other cultures. Being patient and respectful …show more content…
Initially, if I was the doctor for Lia, I would be frustrated. The language barrier and deteriorating patience for the family because of lack of adherence would cause me to be frustrated. However, now that I have read the book, I have become more understanding of the Hmong culture. It is very interesting and I even shared the story with my father who is reading the book now. The Hmong culture had poor experience with the American health care system (Fadiman, 2012, p. 42). Hmong valued healing, spending time with the weak, not asking questions, being kind, and quickly came to a diagnosis; however, the western way of medicine meant that doctors spent little time with their patients, forced the patients to come to the hospital, ask invasive, perhaps rude questions, and required tests and evidence to come to a diagnosis (Fadiman, 2012, p. 42). Knowing what the culture values and how the community handles illness would allow me to be calm, spend more time with the family, and inform the family why we do the tests. After reading the book, I also understand that the family sees epilepsy as a gift (Fadiman, 2012, p. 39). As a doctor, I would explain the consequences of not adhering to the medication; thus, allowing the family to know how severe the illness is, but I would tell the family they can also continue some of the rituals, such as washing Lia’s body in herbs (Fadiman, 2012, p. 194). By …show more content…
I am open to trying different remedies for health benefits. I believe that trying less invasive strategies are the best way to prevent expensive health expenses. It is worth the extra time to do a non-invasive approach to prevent using medication and having surgeries. Before I read the book, I questioned why people from other cultures don’t prefer the western way of medicine. Doesn’t the western way yield better results? After beginning to read the book, I saw the importance of healing traditions. The healing traditions provided a connection to the past and their culture. The Hmong was open towards the idea of using medicine, but they wanted to also provide healing for Lia’s soul. The family explained, “a little medicine and a little neeb (healing spirit)” (Fadiman, 2012, p. 113). However, if the family wants to limit the medicine, then it may hurt the patient, so I believe it is important to allow as much medicine as needed and as much neeb the family thinks is needed. The family explained the healing spirit is needed to get rid of the harmful dabs, which causes sickness (Fadiman, 2012, p. 113). It is important for the Hmong people to remain healthy because of correlation between sickness and bad spirits. I think that by using western and non-western medicine allows a combination of culture values and modernized medicine to work together to meet a common goal- good