Two cultures one goal. The culture of the American healthcare delivery system is more western, medical and scientific while the Hmong family is more old, traditional, and tales. While the American healthcare believes in medication, medical exam and lab tests, the Hmong family, on the other hand, believe in the herb, ceremonial sacrifices, and shamans. Both cultures clashes in numerous ways but the significant one was the choice of treatment for lia. The Hmong family believed in their traditions ways such sacrificing animals to the gods, and using herbs, as a choice of treatment for their daughter’s condition.
The physicians were mostly about giving lia different and more medication, running lab tests and drawing blood. The fact that the doctors …show more content…
No one in the book was trying to harm lia and her family intentionally. There were numerous things that could be have done differently to improve Lee’s experience. The very obvious one is the elimination of the language barrier by hiring a professional interpreter. Although both cultures were communicating, translations were lost due to lack of a professional interpreter. The language barrier made it difficult for the Lee’s family to communicate what they believed to be the diagnosis of their daughter condition. In chapter 3 Dan and Lee's had 2 different diagnoses of lia’s condition. “Dan had no way of knowing that Foua and Nao had already diagnosed their daughter's problem with as the illness where the spirit catches you and you fall down. Foua and Nao Kao had no way of knowing that Dan had diagnosed it as epilepsy (Anne 2013). it very common today that hospitals don’t want to hire professional interpreter due to either financial or legal reason. However, the diversity among patients is increasing and the availability of interpreter should be included in the care of the patient. I know personally as a nurse how hard it is to treat a patient that can’t communicate to me about their problems and pain because I simply don’t understand their language and they don’t understand mine. It becomes very frustrating and problematic providing the care needed by the
The physicians were mostly about giving lia different and more medication, running lab tests and drawing blood. The fact that the doctors …show more content…
No one in the book was trying to harm lia and her family intentionally. There were numerous things that could be have done differently to improve Lee’s experience. The very obvious one is the elimination of the language barrier by hiring a professional interpreter. Although both cultures were communicating, translations were lost due to lack of a professional interpreter. The language barrier made it difficult for the Lee’s family to communicate what they believed to be the diagnosis of their daughter condition. In chapter 3 Dan and Lee's had 2 different diagnoses of lia’s condition. “Dan had no way of knowing that Foua and Nao had already diagnosed their daughter's problem with as the illness where the spirit catches you and you fall down. Foua and Nao Kao had no way of knowing that Dan had diagnosed it as epilepsy (Anne 2013). it very common today that hospitals don’t want to hire professional interpreter due to either financial or legal reason. However, the diversity among patients is increasing and the availability of interpreter should be included in the care of the patient. I know personally as a nurse how hard it is to treat a patient that can’t communicate to me about their problems and pain because I simply don’t understand their language and they don’t understand mine. It becomes very frustrating and problematic providing the care needed by the