This post was written with the help of the author: Daniel Davis is a master in Literature at California University. He is currently working as one of the best writers at the place where you can find movie review examples for college students He also studies male psychology.
Culture is the basis of people’s way to see and approach the world. It defines our decisions, actions, and relations including the health care ones. Culture is based on the experience of the past, but choices drawn from the culture-established habits determine our future, especially the health care ones. Understanding the differences between cultures the individual comes from and the culture he or she lives in is the key to building effective case-by-case approach in the health nursing care system.
Health Beliefs of People of Russian Heritage
Russian culture defines health as the absence of disease. It has a holistic approach to health which consists in determining disease by such factors as family and economic stress, fresh air, nutrition, and sunlight. Holistic approach in Russian culture demands from health care services holistic diagnoses of the problem etiology. That is why from Russian health care tradition perspective, Western medicine which is practiced in the United States pays too much attention to medication and laboratory results (Purnell, 2013). There is a general belief among people of Russian heritage that it is more reliable to recourse to more than one healthcare superior, which, accordingly, leads to combining a couple of prescriptions by a patient without consulting. It is common for people of Russian heritage to practice self-diagnosing through reading disease’s descriptions in paper sources or on the Internet and compare them to their symptoms. Religious people who are seriously ill and their families consider prayer a powerful tool in fighting the disease. Homeopathic and traditional medicine is still used together with Western medicine, specifically herbal teas, tinctures, mud baths, massages, saunas (Purnell, 2013).
One more issue which directly affects health care habits is considering the sexual topic as inappropriate to be discussed in public. It leads to the lack of sexual education and contraception usage awareness among teenagers in the USA. Unlike Americans, Russian immigrants do not take the step of a referral by a primary care provider as needed since they believe it is expensive, wasteful, and reduces timeliness to care (Purnell, 2013).
Health Beliefs of People of Polish Heritage
The main value which influences healthcare approach of Polish people is the value of stoicism. This feature makes them experience function disruption in order to recourse to health care provider. Before asking for medical help, they resort to self-treatment. Although in Polish culture, people are accustomed to expressing pain openly since 95-99% of people of Polish heritage are Catholics and treating pain as a punishment from God, which is not common for the people who live in the USA (Purnell, 2013). Polish people use alternative therapies combined with Western medicine, which also differs from the US people practices which are oriented at solving any health trouble. Preventative health habits are not adopted in Polish culture. When speaking about mental health, people of Polish heritage are looking for physical causes of disease first. If mental problems exist, home visits are preferred (Purnell, 2013).
Health Beliefs of People of Thai Heritage
Compared to Americans, the nutrition of people of Thai heritage differs in the volume of a portion. Thai people eat 1/3d or even 1/5th of the average size of the American’s portion. As well, Thai diet is based on low fat- and meat-containing dishes. (Purnell, 2013). It surely influences their risk and frequency of addressing for health care services. Unlike the USA people, Thai people have a low level of prevention practices mostly caused by poor education. Thai adolescents are traditionally being thought to protect virginity until marriage. Thai beliefs about mental health are based on belief in karma, which explains problems with negative energy of an individual. Consequently, folk therapies are the first way to treat mental health issues. This approach differs from the established ones in the USA. Thai beliefs in rebirth make them be against organs donation since they think they will miss those organs in the next life (Purnell, 2013).
Common and Distinct between Russian, Polish, and Thai Cultures and the Way It Affects the Delivery of Community Health Nursing Care
Different cultural backgrounds make patients share some cultural models which determine their expectations for health nursing care. For nurses and other healthcare professionals, it is important information to be aware of in order to use instruments of awareness, understanding, and sensitivity to provide culturally competent care (Shen, 2014).
The common feature which unites all three cultures of Russian, Polish, and Thai heritage is the lack of preventative practices and need to promote them in every opportunity. Another common feature is having a specific attitude towards mental health: when migrating, Russians may often be not honest answering questions about it because of mental stigma; people of Polish heritage are closed solving these issues, prefer home visits, and are looking for physical reasons of problem firstly; people of Thai heritage prefer to address traditional folk healers as they believe in karma. As well, all three cultures use traditional medicine. Russians and Polish also have such common habit as postponing the appeal to a health care services. In case of Russians, postponement is intensified due to feeling the lack of holistic approach to Western medicine and not understanding the necessity of referral of primary care provider.
People of Thai heritage, unlike Polish or Russians, must be asked whether some nickname should be used since traditionally Thai people have rather long full names. Unlike Polish or Thai people, Russian culture raised people often treat getting important news from a nurse as a lack of respect. That is why it is extremely important for them to get news from a doctor.
To conclude, on the examples of people of three different cultural backgrounds as Russian, Polish, and Thai, there can be found differences in health care beliefs which leads to distinguishes in health care behavior. Culture background mostly affects prevention practices, mental health attitude, sexual education and practices, as well as nutrition habits. Being aware of cultural specifics the patient was influenced by helps health nursing care workers to improve the quality of care for clients from various cultural backgrounds.