Healthcare Beliefs
The patients who visit the hospital are from different cultures and hold on to other beliefs. Health practitioners need to approach cultural and social considerations from a relational perspective for a smooth assessment process. It also helps to understand and distinguish cultural sensitivity and cultural competence and how they affect the practice(Liang et al, 2013). The beliefs and cultural traditions of an individual or individuals influence their health-seeking behavior greatly.
Some communities express pain based on their cultural beliefs and attitudes towards pain. In some cultures, it is a heroic and honorable act to endure pain. In this case, the practitioner’s recommendation of painkillers may vary depending on such communities’ attitude towards the problem (Liang et al, 2013). Evidence shows a disparity in painkillers’ dosages to patients by medical practitioners, although the dosage has reduced over time. In the assessment room, some individuals may not respond to pain because of their beliefs towards pain, leading to the doctors making a preliminary diagnosis.
There are beliefs by some communities that letting a newborn or beautiful child stay out will expose them to the evil eye of outsiders. In turn, these outsiders will cast an evil spell on the children, and misfortune will befall them. Compliments invite the envious look from the evil eye may invite harm and trouble. While it bears no scientific truth, believers of this theory hold it sacred and do anything possible to stay away from evil eyes(Suttle, 2018). For this reason, parents shy away from taking their children to the hospital whenever they have symptoms of a disease. Sometimes when they do, the disease progression is too far into the condition, affecting the initial assessment process and diagnosis of the disease.
Some patients believe in certain drugs to cure pain or fever, and nothing else would replace them. When the doctor changes these drugs and administers them during an assessment interview to fix the same problem or delirium, they have conflicting thoughts or refuse the medication all at once.
Culture and beliefs play a significant role in affecting patient compliance with medication. Culture also affects and results in varied health preferences and perceptions. Changing the perception that these people have towards certain illnesses and how treatment works may greatly influence an assessment interview outcome. People use alternative medicine as a substitute for conventional medicine(Suttle, 2018). The alternative medicine interaction with the body is different and may interfere with the inherent symptoms, affecting the assessment outcomes.
A culturally sensitive interview is vital for successful treatment outcomes of a patient. Planning for such an interview requires that the medical practitioner be prepared to ask the right questions and has an open mind towards the patient’s beliefs. Asking probing questions will allow the doctor to have more information on other aspects of the culture that may counter initial thoughts that the patient is putting across(Center for Substance Abuse et al, 2014). It is applicable, especially with beliefs that some cultures have not to touch or associate with sick people. In such a case, the doctor may counteract with the opinions of unity and togetherness at all times that the same community holds to compel them to bring in patients for an interview as soon as they fall sick.
Physical findings that the medical practitioner identifies during an assessment interview influence the diagnosis that they will make. Behavioral cues in physical results from a cultural perspective help determine the patient’s beliefs that greatly influence the interview outcome. Cultural sensitivity significantly affects medical development and requires that we take a keen look during the medical assessment.
References
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (US). Improving Cultural Competence. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2014. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 59.) 3, Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Treatment Planning. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK248423/
Liang, Shu-Yuan & Chen, Kang-Pan & Tsay, Shiow-Luan & Wu, Shu-Fang & Chuang, Yeu-Hui & Wang, Tsae-Jyy & Tung, Heng-Hsin & Cheng, Su-Fen. (, 2013). Relationship Between Belief about Analgesics, Analgesic Adherence, and Pain Experience in Taiwanese Cancer Outpatients. Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention: APJCP. 14. 713-6. 10.7314/APJCP.2013.14.2.713.
Suttle.M. “The Evil Eye.” U.osu.edu | Ohio State’s Professional Website Platform, 8 Mar. 2018, u.osu.edu/vanzandt/2018/03/08/the-evil-eye/.