Cross-Cultural Medicine
- Cultural Competency. Culture is defined as the beliefs and attitudes that are learned and shared by members of a group. ...
- Views of Disease Causation. A person’s worldview (i.e., basic assumptions about reality) is closely linked with his or her cultural and religious background and has profound health care implications.
- Cross-Cultural Interview. ...
What does the medical term culture mean?
In medicine, a culture is a test which is performed to look for organisms which could be causing disease in a patient. To perform a culture, a sample is taken from the patient and placed into a petri dish with growth medium, allowing any organisms present to multiply and flourish.
Does culture play a role in quality of medical care?
The role of organizational culture in healthcare includes the ability to create a quality healthcare service. Workers who have good personal values about aspects that make good healthcare will naturally exhibit working behaviors conducive to quality healthcare.
What is culture and medicine?
CULTURE AND MEDICINE: HEALERS AND HEALING PRACTICES ANTH 301 Course Description: Every culture and society has had to deal with illness and thus has well-developed concepts about the healing process, healers, diagnosis, medical treatment, medical knowledge and healing practices. This course offers a cross cultural exploration of
How does culture affect healthcare?
Cultural beliefs affect health and wellness through the information that it provides for its people. Patients then use the data forwarded to families and family members to come to a solid understanding of their health status. Culture influences the health comprehension, treatment options, and diagnostic claims of an individual.
What is meant by culture in medical?
Culture: In microbiology, the propagation of microorganisms in a growth medium. Any body tissue or fluid can be evaluated in the laboratory by using culture techniques to detect and identify infectious processes. Culture techniques can be used to determine sensitivity to antibiotics. Cells may also be grown in culture.
Why is culture important in medicine?
Cultural competence significantly benefits healthcare organizations and patients alike. It results in more patient participation and engagement, fostering respect and improved understanding, which can lead to: Increased patient safety. Reduced inefficiencies.
How does culture affect medicine?
Culture plays a huge role in medical interactions. It influences how an individual might view an illness or treatment, for example, and affects how a physician should address an older patient. Culture may also affect the decision-making process.
Why is culture important?
In addition to its intrinsic value, culture provides important social and economic benefits. With improved learning and health, increased tolerance, and opportunities to come together with others, culture enhances our quality of life and increases overall well-being for both individuals and communities.
What are the positive effects of culture on health?
Culture and the arts benefit health According to an extensive report released by the World Health Organization, the arts can influence the social factors related to health, contribute to children's development, promote health-enhancing behaviour, prevent illnesses and support treatment of patients.
How does culture impact health outcomes?
Cultural health beliefs affect how people think and feel about their health and health problems, when and from whom they seek health care, and how they respond to recommendations for lifestyle change, health-care interventions, and treatment adherence.
Why is culture important in public health?
Cultural respect benefits consumers, stakeholders, and communities and supports positive health outcomes. Because several elements can influence health communication—including behaviors, language, customs, beliefs, and perspectives—cultural respect is also critical for achieving accuracy in medical research.
What is the meaning of traditional medicine?
Traditional medicine refers to health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain well-being.
Rapid Response
Sir, Contemporary definitions emphasise a dynamic nature of culture as a process through which beliefs and practices are affected by social contexts and power relationships.
Medicine as culture
Sir, Contemporary definitions emphasise a dynamic nature of culture as a process through which beliefs and practices are affected by social contexts and power relationships.
What is hanging drop culture?
hanging-drop culturea culture in which the material to be cultivated is inoculated into a drop of fluid attached to a coverglass inverted over a hollow slide.
How is shake culture made?
shake culturea culture made by inoculating warm liquid agar culture medium in a tube and shaking to distribute contents evenly. Incubation of the resolidified culture allows the development of separated colonies; especially adaptable to obligate anaerobes.
What is cell culture?
cell culturethe maintenance or growth of animal cells in vitro, or a culture of such cells.
What is selective culture?
selective cultureone grown on a medium, usually solid, that has been supplemented to encourage the growth of a single species of microorganism. It may also include substances that inhibit the growth of other species.
What is an IGA assay?
IgA assayAn immunoblot-type assay which allows the early diagnosis in infants of perinatal HIV infection
What is the meaning of "ethnic"?
A way of life for a particular ethnic group , which may include a language of communication, customs (rites, rituals), religion, lifestyle, shared system of values, beliefs, morals and social norms (patterns of behaviour), which can include dress and diet.
What is a germ?
noun A general term for a propagation of microorganisms —e.g., bacteria, fungi, viruses—in/on a growth media, or specimen so cultured, and the medium—agar, broth, etc.—in which it is being grown, under controlled conditions.
What is TCM in Chinese medicine?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) focuses on the person rather than disease, with much more emphasis on prevention of disease and regular tune-ups than on the curing of a specific ailment, although it can be used for that purpose when needed. The main treatment modalities are acupuncture and acupressure, food, and herbs.
What is optimal health?
Western medicine often defines optimal health as the absence of named diseases, although there’s a huge difference between someone who is disease-free yet barely slogging through life and someone who is vital and vibrant.
What is alternative medicine?
So-called alternative medicine isn’t one single system of medicine and healthcare, but is rather a number of more or less unrelated practices including chiropractic, homeopathy, yoga, herbalism, and nutrition.
What are the negatives of Western medicine?
When nutritional recommendations are made in Western medicine, they are usually in the negative: avoid or limit salt for high blood pressure, sugar for diabetes, fat and egg yolks for heart disease, or calories for obesity.
What is the meaning of Ayurveda?
Ayurveda means “knowledge of life”, and is about knowing one’s body and experience, and about balancing three aspects of the body and mind called doshas. Like TCM, it makes use of food and herbs as well as self-knowledge. Alternative medicine.
What is the major factor in healthcare choice?
A major factor in healthcare choice, at least in the US, is what your insurance plan will cover. If allopathic treatments for cancer, such as chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, are paid for by insurance but other kinds of treatments are not, most people will, of financial necessity, choose that which is covered.
What is Western medicine?
Western medicine focuses on using medication and surgery, almost excluding any other approaches. The goal is to cure or manage disease, or at least suppress the symptoms. The focus is on the disease or injury rather than on the characteristics of the person who has the disease. Chinese medicine.
Why is it important to understand and respect patients?
Understanding and respect will serve CMPA members well as they provide culturally competent and culturally safe care. Committing to and encouraging cultural competence and safety in medical practice is a life-long journey, with clear benefits for patients and physicians.
How to respect patients?
Respect for patients is key to minimizing the risk of culture-related disagreements or misunderstandings. Physicians should consider the following practices: 1 Foster strong doctor-patient relationships by being "intentionally inclusive" in patient care. This decreases the likelihood of unknowingly being "accidentally exclusive." 2 Treat every patient encounter as potentially cross-cultural. 3 Watch for potential language barriers, particularly when communicating in a patient's second or third language. A trusted translator can help, when appropriate, however physicians should be cautious when relying on friends or family members who may add their own interpretation into the discussion. 4 Inquire about the patient's beliefs related to disease, the reasons for illness, and issues about treatment. 5 Ask patients how they want to be treated and how care can be provided in a culturally sensitive way. 6 Be aware of how professional boundaries (i.e. limits to the physician-patient relationship) are perceived. 7 Document any culture-driven patient accommodations in the medical record. 8 Rely on a third party or "cultural broker" when working in difficult or emotionally-charged situations that may be rooted in cultural differences, such as inter-generational value conflicts.
What is cultural competence?
Cultural competence. Doctors who use their knowledge and skills to provide effective healthcare for patients of diverse cultural backgrounds are said to be culturally competent. Competence requires a blend of knowledge, conviction, and a capacity for action.
What is culture in medicine?
Culture incorporates a mix of beliefs and behaviours that define the values of communities and social groups. All physicians have their own cultural background, and most doctors practising in Canada are accustomed to providing care to patients from different backgrounds. Moreover, physicians are increasingly aware of the way in which culture can shape the practice of healthcare and influence health outcomes.
What are the visible and non-visible signs of culture?
There are visible and non-visible signs of culture. Visible signs include language, dress, food, and rituals. Non-visible indicators include perceptions of time, notions of modesty, reactions to physical space, and how emotions are managed. In Canada, patients and physicians come from many different cultures.
Why is respect important for patients?
Respect for patients is key to minimizing the risk of culture-related disagreements or misunderstandings. Physicians should consider the following practices:
How does culture influence eating?
Culture can also influence eating and fasting rituals, even when nourishment is vital to recovery and overall function. It can also play a role in the level of family influence in patient care decisions.
What is Healthcare Culture?
Organizational culture is a term that is used to describe many different aspects of how a company or group operates and the qualities or philosophies that dictate the behaviors of individuals within the group. The term is often used to describe companies, and that includes healthcare companies. Hospitals, medical centers, even doctor’s offices and insurance companies have a culture, whether it is formal and defined or more informal.
What is patient centered culture?
Organizations that truly focus on the patient have several factors in the culture that put the patient first: being kind and compassionate to patients, respecting patients and their individual cultures, keeping patients informed and educated, making enough time for patients, and others.
Why is it important to change healthcare culture?
This is a cultural shift that is beneficial to patients because it improves communication, a major barrier to safety, and because it puts more minds to work on each patient issue. It also helps to manage care continuation more smoothly and efficiently.
What is the culture of a hospital?
The culture of a healthcare setting can be a deciding factor in where you receive medical care. Patients can choose between a hospital that prioritizes patient autonomy and safety, for example, or a hospital in which the culture is more traditional and keeps patients further outside the care decision-making process.
How does culture affect healthcare?
These include poor leadership or lack of leadership, employees who don’t feel empowered to make changes, constraints imposed by outside stakeholders, and differences in subcultures, such as between physicians and healthcare managers. Money can also be an issue. When profits drive a culture, patients can be left behind, and making the culture more patient-focused becomes difficult.
What is paternalistic culture in medical care?
This means that the doctors acted like father figures, telling patients what was best for them. This was done without giving patients information or allowing them any level of autonomy or ability to make decisions.
What is the importance of safety culture?
There are several important elements in a culture of safety, including recognizing where the risks are, such as medical errors that can harm patients. It also includes making the environment blame-free, so that people can feel safe reporting errors that may cause harm. Collaboration and communication are also important elements of a safety culture. When everything is put in place to allow and encourage all medical professionals in a healthcare setting to communicate, errors that hurt patients are minimized.
What is hidden curriculum?
The term “hidden curriculum” has been used in sociology to describe dimensions of medical education that are not intended or explicit. Frederic W. Hafferty, Elizabeth H. Gaufberg, and Joseph F. O’Donnell discuss the role that fashionable “on doctoring” courses have in disseminating and responding to the hidden curriculum in medical education. Martha Peaslee Levine reflects on a journal article about the powerful influence physician-student relationships have on the next generation of doctors.
What is Brandon Vaidyanathan's perspective on medical culture?
Brandon Vaidyanathan probes medical culture more conceptually, giving us a sociological perspective on how professional cultures are communicated to new members. He explores the role of narrative scripts, imitation, and habituation in shaping and sustaining norms and values in medicine.
What is a universally shared rite of passage in medicine?
A universally shared rite of passage in medicine is the process by which graduating medical students are “matched” with residency programs. In our law piece, Richard Weinmeyer takes us on the journey of a courageous group of physicians who sought to challenge the National Resident Matching Program in the case of Jung vs Association of American Medical Colleges.
Why is culture so challenging?
Perhaps one reason defining and discussing culture can be so challenging is that so much of what forms and sustains it is implicit. The culture of medicine is not only defined by what doctors do, say, feel, and think, but also by what they do not do, say, feel, or think. What one is expected to read between the lines, ...
Where is Marta Michalska-Smith?
Marta Michalska-Smith is a second-year medical student at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She received her BA in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Her interests lie in the many issues at the intersection of philosophy and medicine and how these issues play out in the practices of the medical profession.
Who is the author of the article "Promoting Diversity in Medicine"?
Marc J. Kahn’s and Ernest J. Sneed’s piece on promoting diversity in medicine argues that the rhetoric about the financial burden of applying to and attending medical school may dissuade people with lower socioeconomic status from pursuing careers in medicine. Finally, Stanley F. Wainapel investigates barriers for the applicant with a disability. He points out the ways in which medical schools lag behind other institutions when it comes to accommodating students or physicians with disabilities, thereby reinforcing a narrow, outdated definition of who can become a physician.
