This course has helped students in acquisition of knowledge regarding cultural influence to health care. This means people have different cultural practices that need to be considered by any professional to avoid conflicts during their practice. Some people treasure their culture so much and they can prefer dying rather than betraying their cultural beliefs. The course equips students with vital information regarding how patients need to be handled in order to respect their cultural beliefs. They should ensure that clients respond positively to medical services. For instance, cultural perceptions towards sickness are highlighted, and possible ways of convincing patients to accept medication are developed, as well. In addition, practitioners are taught how to handle cultural beliefs in order to make patients accept and feel that their beliefs have been respected (Spector, 2009). For instance, health facilities can ensure that patients are attended to by practitioners of the same gender in some cultures.
This information is extremely valuable because it prepares medical practitioners on what they should expect in the field. For instance, medical practitioners may be posted to work in any part of a country or state hence exposing them to various cultural groups. Medical practitioners should be able to carry themselves professionally to ensure that their service provision does not end up in conflict with cultural beliefs of the society. In addition, they are taught how to convince local people to accept some medical services which are initially condemned by their cultures (Fernando, 2003). This is enhanced by counseling skills given to practitioners in order to approach people carefully hence winning their trust. This strengthens practitioner’s relationships with other people in both personal and professional life as they understand individuals’ cultural beliefs.
These topics have helped students to change their perceptions about practitioner- client interactions. For instance, practitioners are expected to listen to client’s arguments and allegations carefully before responding. This happens where clients want to seek alternative form of medication citing their cultural beliefs. For example, in some cultures women are not supposed to view some body parts of men and vice versa. Therefore, medical practitioners should be able to understand that and change scenes to ensure that the client gets proper medical assessment and treatment. In fact, medical practitioners learn that client cooperation is earned by careful considerations of their demands. If a practitioner is rude, clients may end up protesting and eventually declining to cooperate with medical processes (Spector, 2009).
The reading on health in African American population is the most informative. The module gives details regarding health activities in this cultural society. In addition, the population comprises of people with different cultural background. In fact, it highlights some of cultural beliefs and practices among African American population. Students get an opportunity to learn different cultural beliefs since the population has many cultures. This equips them with knowledge prior to getting on the ground to practice what they have been taught. In addition, this module provides practitioners with what they need to do in order to attain maximum cooperation from clients (Fernando, 2003). This means that medical practitioners are given clues on how to handle specific groups among the African American population.
The most useful insight in reading is traditional definitions of health and illness. These insights were tremendously helpful to students because it gave clear image of how people in the population perceive health and illness. This can help medical practitioners in understanding people with different cultural backgrounds within the African American population. Practitioners can come up with strategies aimed at convincing people to adapt modern medication, as opposed to cultural treatments. Modern health services are better because they target specific conditions unlike traditional treatments, which rely on luck. This is because traditional doctors treat people without doing any test or examinations to show the disease. Therefore, it is crucial for health practitioners to know how different people take illnesses and treatments in their cultures.
The most surprising thing learnt in this course is how people were able to maintain and protect their health conditions using traditional methods. For instance, most communities emphasized on healthy eating habits, and they had traditional food, which helped them to keep fit and strong. Cultural diets entailed eating nutritious meals with hot breakfast. In addition, they advocated on having enough rest and cleanliness in order to maintain their healthy conditions (Spector, 2009). Those strict to these methods of health maintenance stay for long without getting sick since their immune system remain intact.
There were some challenges in the course, and these were brought about by the fact that convincing people to adapt modern medicine among this population can be difficult. In fact, medical practitioners find it difficult to practice in places where people are so much into cultural beliefs and practices (Fernando, 2003). This means that people may have their theories to defend illnesses. For instance, in some communities diseases are associated with punishment from supernatural beings. Therefore, convincing patients to seek medical assistance becomes impossible as they rely on traditional cleansing activities. Patients’ conditions may worsen as their tribesmen conduct rituals and in some cases they lose their lives. Merging culture with modern medical practices is quite a challenging task for medical practitioners.
References
Fernando, S. (2003). Cultural Diversity, Mental Health and Psychiatry: The Struggle Against Racism. New York: Psychology Press.
Spector, R. E. (2009). Cultural Diversity in Health and Illness. London: Pearson Prentice Hall.