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Notes on article by N. E. Conner and L. S. Eller “Spiritual perspectives, needs and nursing interventions of Christian African–Americans”
The article concludes that “the potential for spiritual care to influence both the psychological and physiological health of patients either directly or indirectly speaks to the urgency of providing patients with appropriate spiritual assessment and interventions” (631). I found this to be the most important part of the article, because while the authors had chosen to explore one subgroup as an example of the spiritual needs of the patients, this conclusion refers to all patients. “Respondents also wrote in their need for nurses to pray with and share personal beliefs with them. We found that 41% of desired spiritual nursing interventions were related to nurses’ direct participation in spiritual activities,…
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Notes on the case study by T. Borneman, O. Klein, J. Thomas, B. Ferrel “Spiritual Care for Jewish Patients Facing a Life Threatening Illness”
The article is a case study of a 65 year old lady diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer, who is Jewish by birth but who does not share the Jewish religious beliefs. We are shown some of the challenges that chaplains and physicians would need to face in working with Jewish patients. The quote below summarized the main idea of the article (case study): “[This case] illustrates the great differences in belief among jews and demonstrates that clinicians and chaplains cannot make assumptions based on a patient’s self-identification as Jewish”(p.61). We see that there is no one right way to deal with Jewish patients, just as there is not one particular…
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Notes on the case study by E. Li and C. Wen “Should the Confucian Family-Determination Model Be Rejected?”
This article describes a case that happened in a hospital in China, when a young lady on the 9th month of pregnancy came in and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia, followed by a sharp drop in cardiopulmonary function and general edema, and soon after arriving at the hospital went into coma. The doctors considered cesarian section as the optimal solution to save the lives of the mother and the baby, but the father of the child did not give his permission for the surgery, and the other relatives of the woman were hard to reach. Because the surgery had been postponed until the hospital could have consent from the family…
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Notes the article by by Sarah M. Whitman “Pain and Suffering as Viewed by the Hindu Religion”
There are many interesting points made in this article, including the whole idea of acceptance and detachment from the outcome of whatever action. The idea of acceptance is central in Hindu religion as is the concept of Karma through which all the life’s misfortunes are viewed. At the same time, the author shows us with the example of several scientific studies, that acceptance-based strategies in dealing with chronic pain have proved to be more efficient than control-based strategies. Bringing these scientific facts to parallel the religion-based approach is very helpful for medical professionals, for whom it may be difficult to grasp this strategy only based on belief. Another interesting parallel…
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Medicine is a Humane Art: the Basic Principles of Professional Ethics in Chinese Medicine by Zhang and Cheng
This article provides a review of the history of Chinese medicine and the growth and development of medical ethics in this context. What I found especially interesting is the emphasis on the way ethics is addressed, how ethically right behaviour is promoted. We see that Chinese culture pays much attention to moral evaluation, which is expressed by the filial obedience, being respectful and nice to others independent of their social status, and in cherishing life, with appreciation of mortality. Confucius taught that everybody had an inner sense of right and wrong, which they knew by self examination, rather than by following laws and restrictions. “Benevolence is the core of Confucian…
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Notes on the article by M. C. Inhorn and G. I. Serour “Islam, medicine, and Arab-Muslim refugee health in America after 9/11”
From this article we learn that muslims do not agree on some common global norms or best practices. Their responses to medical problems and procedures, such as assisted reproductive technologies, are mediated by a wide range of ever-changing local circumstances and social forces. (p.937) There is a great diversity in the world’s Muslim population. In addition to sectarian differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims, the followers of Islam vary greatly in their religious piety. Some Muslims follow particular clerics, whereas others consider their primary relationship to be with God. “Islam is not monolithic and Islamic religious authorities are not in agreement about science, technology, and medicine—eg, for assisted reproductive technologies,…
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Notes on the article by A. Baez and D. Hernandez “Complementary Spiritual Beliefs in the Latino Community: The Interface with Psychotherapy”
The article demonstrates that the successful provision of culturally sensitive and culturally inclusive mental health services depends in large part on the level of congruence between the client’s and the mental health practitioner’s respective views of mental illness and its treatment. So, it is vital for mental health professionals to draw the distinction in these matters in order to find the best approach to their patients. This article is intended to help non-Latino mental health practitioners reach that “level of understanding and respect, and also to achieve the adjustment of clinical techniques necessary for better cultural responsiveness to these patients, a matter seldom addressed directly in the mental health literature”…
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Notes on the article by A.Viladrich “Beyond the Supernatural: Latino Healers Treating Latino Immigrants in NYC”
The article explores the role of Latino folk healers in adequately addressing immigrants’ health needs, including their potential to complement or replace formal access to health care services. “More than competing with other healing businesses, [Latino healers] are filling a gap by providing cultural meaningful treatments while satisfying Latinos’ unmet needs…. Botanicas offer personalized response to problems that would either receive little attention or remain unattended otherwise”(p. 144) This quote states an important point – that besides the actual healing practice, besides the ceremonies and selling the herbal supplements, the botanicas provide the necessary spiritual care to patients, who would not be able to receive this care anywhere else. This…
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Notes on article by S. Saha, MD et al. “Patient Centeredness, Cultural Competence and Healthcare Quality”
While the patient centerdness (PC) and cultural competence (CC) essentially have developed from two different focus points, they both aim at improving the quality of healthcare. The people who have worked on the development of the models essentially seemed to have similar understanding of the values of the World and and followed similar intentions to help patients feel better not only on a physical level. “Just as proponents of cultural competence might embrace most aspects of patient centeredness, it is likely that propo- nents of patient centeredness would also embrace these additional features of cultural competence. “ p.1281 This quote sums up this idea – that to be a proponent…
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Notes on the article by by E-shien Chang et al. “Integrating cultural humility into health care professional education and training.”
The article talks about the necessity to expand cultural sensitivity with the emphasis on cultural humility. The authors brings us several examples of how important cultural humility is and how destructive its lack can be. They make a strong point in that the model they are proposing (QIAN model) would allow to correct some faults in patient care such as imbalance of power, which often prevents completely open communication and thus does not allow the doctor to see the full picture. The inclusive nature of this model is adaptable to different cultural and ethnic groups and can be used to enhance cross-cultural communication skills of very different healthcare professionals. While…