Overview of Culture in Health Care
What is culture?
Culture is a broadly defined term with definitions varying by the context in which it is used. Anthropologists define it as a set of systems, values, beliefs and behaviors shared by a group of people through which they view the world and one another. It is passed from generation to generation via a learned process and influences what a person believes to be “normal” and “right.”
It is important to remember that culture is learned through environment, not inherited through genetics. Cultures are not demarcated solely by ethnicity, and within a given culture there can be many sub-cultures. In addition, it is possible to belong to multiple cultures simultaneously. For instance, a child born in the United States from Taiwanese immigrant parents may be part of a Taiwanese culture, as well as an immigrant culture. Her family may practice Buddhism and as such she is also part of a Buddhist culture. However, by being raised in the US, she will go to American schools and will learn American culture from her peers and she may even practice the secular customs of Christmas, though it is not a Buddhist holiday. As she gets older some ideals of her different cultures may come into conflict, and there may come a time when she is forced to choose certain values of one culture over the values of another, thereby creating her own unique individual culture.
To what cultures do you belong?
The Cultural Competency Module
The Culture in Health module includes three cases with patients of different cultures. The goal of each case is to learn fundamental cross-cultural skills and how they apply to health care.
Within any medical encounter, there are at least two perspectives on the cause and appropriate treatment of the presenting problem: that of the patient and of the provider. The patient perspective is framed within his or her cultural perspectives, as is the provider's (most notably the medical culture). The goal of providing culturally appropriate care is to maximize the common ground between these different perspectives.
Below is a diagram of the physician-patient cultural interplay, which is used to frame the tools and resources that will be used within the cases. The Resource pages will provide you with background information, and the Toolbox pages provide printable tools to be used clinically to practice the cultural objectives.
