This case study discusses a conversation between a doctor and a patient’s mother from Puerto Rico. The doctor prescribed new drugs to the patient because the previous ones did not work. The patient's mother had not followed the doctor's instructions for the first time because of her cultural beliefs. Unfortunately, four days after the second meeting with the doctor, the mother brought her child to the emergency room with respiratory symptoms.
Since the doctor realized that the patient’s mother had strong cultural beliefs that could affect the healing process of the child, he should have had a serious conversation with her. To solve the challenges in intercultural health communication between the doctor and the patient’s mother, the doctor …show more content…
In addition, it was not easy for the mother of the patient to ask clarifying questions if there were things she didn’t understand clearly. Thus, there was linguistic problem between the patient’s mother and the doctor and this was impacted the way they communicated.
• Gender: This is another barrier to the effective communication. (Internet Archive, 2014). In other words, gender also affects the way people communicate. According to Pink Pangea, Spain has a longstanding tradition of sexist gender roles, (Gallagher, 2014). In the Spanish culture, gender is an important thing. Males are dominant, aggressive, powerful and sexual. On the other hand, females have passivity, purity, and obedience. Linking this information to our scenario, the patient’s mother was intimidated by the male doctor, so she was not comfortable enough to ask questions and express her concerns.
• Eye contact: the doctor was seated and his attention was on his computer. According to Evenesis, keeping eye contact with the person you are discussing with shows that you are focused and that you are paying attention, (Evenesis, n.d.) Due to the fact that the doctor was always looking at his screen, the patient’s mother felt like he was not much interested in helping them or that he was not
Since the doctor realized that the patient’s mother had strong cultural beliefs that could affect the healing process of the child, he should have had a serious conversation with her. To solve the challenges in intercultural health communication between the doctor and the patient’s mother, the doctor …show more content…
In addition, it was not easy for the mother of the patient to ask clarifying questions if there were things she didn’t understand clearly. Thus, there was linguistic problem between the patient’s mother and the doctor and this was impacted the way they communicated.
• Gender: This is another barrier to the effective communication. (Internet Archive, 2014). In other words, gender also affects the way people communicate. According to Pink Pangea, Spain has a longstanding tradition of sexist gender roles, (Gallagher, 2014). In the Spanish culture, gender is an important thing. Males are dominant, aggressive, powerful and sexual. On the other hand, females have passivity, purity, and obedience. Linking this information to our scenario, the patient’s mother was intimidated by the male doctor, so she was not comfortable enough to ask questions and express her concerns.
• Eye contact: the doctor was seated and his attention was on his computer. According to Evenesis, keeping eye contact with the person you are discussing with shows that you are focused and that you are paying attention, (Evenesis, n.d.) Due to the fact that the doctor was always looking at his screen, the patient’s mother felt like he was not much interested in helping them or that he was not