In the video, there is a man who complains to his doctor about severe knee pain after the surgery. He stated the necessity for more strong pain medicine in order to return to his typical work schedule. The doctor was quite dismissive of his pain issues and advised him to manage his suffering with over-the-counter drugs for the time being. The physician suspected he was seeking narcotics, warned him about the addictive potential of painkillers, and refused to treat his suffering. In addition to providing over-the-counter pain medications, the doctor gave Carolos no further pain management alternatives and directed him to return to the medical facility in one month (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).
After seeing the film, my perspectives and expectations towards different cultures were drastically altered. I have always thought that everyone is equal regardless of their origin, colour, or ethnicity. Regarding culturally acceptable healthcare, however, the distinction may lay mostly in the patients’ attitudes that hindered them from adhering to self-care or surgical intervention for specific illnesses. The information that was new to me and altered my vision of patient-centered treatment was the variation in pain tolerance among Latinx patients.
Pain is a universal human experience that pervades all life phases. Pain perception and response vary across individuals and are impacted by several interrelated biological, psychological, and social aspects (Miller et al., 2019). It seems that cultural and ethnic backgrounds influence how individuals perceive, manifest, and manage pain. For example, in 2017, Aufiero et al. administered standardized pain stimuli to two groups of Caucasian and Latino adult patients of both sexes (Miller et al., 2019).
Latinos and females reported higher levels of pain, showing a significant difference in pain perception across groups. Herbert et al. (2017 quoted in Miller et al., 2019) investigated cultural variations in osteoarthritis pain between African American and non-Hispanic White individuals. According to their findings, the association between ethnicity and cortisol levels was inversely related to pain complaints. Similarly, Robertson et al. (2017) showed that Japanese respondents evaluated their discomfort much higher than British persons (Miller et al., 2019). Despite this growing amount of evidence, further study is still required to determine how culture influences pain.
Multiple studies have indicated that Spanish patients often neglect to express their symptoms. Carlos, an English-speaking Latino, revealed to the doctor that his suffering hindered him from doing his work duties. Hispanics tend to get fulfillment from working and caring for their families. They prefer to work in low-income regions, and unemployment might harm them. Dr. Walker may have considered these cultural characteristics.
Then he would have realized that it was difficult for Carlos to seek medical assistance because of his constant pain and his urgent desire to return to work. In addition, the doctor should have probed more about the patient’s pain. Such is, “are there specific movements and times when you suffer the greatest pain?”; “Is the pain worse when you move?”; “Do you experience pain constantly?” In addition, c Dr. Walker should have suggested cold or warm compresses to help alleviate pain and physically inspected the knee to see whether it was red or swollen. There are pain relief alternatives to analgesics.
As global migration continues to expand, healthcare institutions and organizations must be prepared to provide culturally and linguistically diverse patients with appropriate treatment. When working with culturally and linguistically diverse patients, health care professionals may confront a variety of barriers. They may include communication barriers, misunderstandings caused by diverse cultural views about illness and treatment, and varying levels of health literacy and knowledge of the new country’s health system (Vella et al., 2022). The unconscious biases and preconceptions of healthcare professionals may exacerbate these issues. Lack of effective cross-cultural communication and understanding may have a detrimental impact on patient engagement with treatment, resulting in increased levels of unmet needs and contributing to the existing disparities in health outcomes.
There is strong evidence that cultural competence training for healthcare professionals improves doctors’ knowledge, comprehension, and capacities to serve patients from diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Caring for Women Veterans, a cultural competence training program for Veterans Affairs health care employees, improved caregivers’ gender sensitivity and understanding, and significantly increased training uptake when delivered in-person as opposed to through the web (Country Health, 2022).
Online training in Florida improved the cultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes of pediatric caregivers caring for children with chronic respiratory disorders and their families (Country Health, 2022). Training in the style of a telenovela improved the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers in providing culturally appropriate end-of-life care for Hispanic elders and increased caregiver duties awareness (Country Health, 2022). In a study done in Massachusetts, cultural competence training increased physicians’ awareness of racial disparities in diabetes care (Country Health, 2022). Cultural competence training may boost patient satisfaction. In some circumstances, patients whose providers have undergone training have more positive perceptions of their doctors and participate in mental health treatment for longer durations than patients whose providers have not received training.
References
Cultural competence training for health care professionals. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. (2022). Web.
Miller, E. T., & Abu-Alhaija, D. M. (2019). Cultural influences on pain perception and management. Pain Management Nursing, 20(3), 183-184. Web.
Vella, E., White, V. M., & Livingston, P. (2022). Does cultural competence training for health professionals impact culturally and linguistically diverse patient outcomes? A systematic review of the literature. Nurse Education Today, 118, 105500. Web.