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Notes on the article by by Patricia J. Kelly, PhD et al. “Exploring the Theoretical Framework of Cultural Competency Training”
The article explores the theoretical frameworks of cultural competency training for Physician Assistants. It discusses the importance of such training, the main theories of health care cultural competency, and a brief history of its implementation. They propose shifting the view of cultural competency training from being one of the additional topics in the curriculum of medical students to being one of the foundation courses. The authors explain that teaching cultural norms and exposing the students to cultural diversity will not train the students how to appropriately elicit cultural information from patients. They point out that such authors as Shapiro, Lie, Gutierrez, and Zhung have discovered that medical students “tend to…
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Notes on the article by William R. LaFleur “Body”
“Critical Terms for Religious Studies” edited by Mark C. Taylor This work is dedicated to the exploration of the relationship between religion and body. First of all, LaFleur provides a short overview on the history of this relationship. We see that while most cultured initially insisted on accepting our bodies the way they were (given to us by God), there have also been many physical alterations made to the bodies throughout history on the basis of religious belief. While Christianity has been taking pride in being the one religion that does not promote any changes in the body, it was the first one to apply the term corpses, meaning that…
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Notes on “Shattering Culture: American Medicine Responds to Cultural Diversity” by Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good (Editor) et al.
The world is changing, the people are moving, the demographics are being reshaped, especially in the US where there are so many immigrants. This book presents a collection of works that describe how are health-care institutions responding to this changing demographics, including issues within the institutional policies and the personal human dilemmas in serving the diverse and constantly changing group of patients. Although it is clear that cultural diversity often covaries with racial and ethnic classifications, we must remember that cultural diversity can exist within ethnic groups as well, and other dimensions of culture (such as those deriving from class background or education). Through various examples we are shown that…
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Notes on “Medicine, Religion and Health” by Koenig
In his book “Medicine, Religion and Health” Koenig raises several important questions about the role of spirituality in the healthcare settings. First of all, he address the problem of definition of the term spirituality. As it is shown, due to the fact that spirituality in itself is a very private matter, it can be described differently by every person. Koenig brings up several definitions of different researchers and eventually offers his own. In his opinion, spirituality should be linked to religion even though it does not necessarily imply religious belief. While there may be different opinions on the precise definition of spirituality, Koenig points out that in the clinical settings…
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The Differences Between the Dark Green Religion and Eco-theology.
In his book The Dark Green Religion: Nature, Spirituality, and Planetary Future, Bron Taylor draws a clear distinction between green religion and dark green religion. He explains that green religion is basically the environmentally friendly actions of religious people who see these actions as part of their religious obligation. This approach is based on the anthropocentric view of the world, where people believe that human beings are the most important entity in the universe. Anthropocentrism interprets or regards the world in terms of human values and experiences. Thus, any sort of environmentally friendly activities are taken in order to promote and comfort the existence of humans. Dark green religion, on the…
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Islam – a very short overview
The word Islam means “submission to the will of God”. Islam is the second largest religion in the world. The flowers of Islam are called Muslims. It is a monotheistic religion, as the Muslims believe there is only one God. Muslims believe that Islam was revealed over 1400 years ago in Mecca, Arabia. The word for God in Arabic is Allah. Muslims believe that God sent several prophets to people to teach about his law, including Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and Muhammad. Thus all the prophets of major religions of the World are respected by Muslims. Muslims base their laws on their holy book the Qur’an, and the Sunnah. The Qur’an is…
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Steps to Becoming a Chaplain
Chaplaincy training programs can be found at various colleges, universities, and seminaries. Many of these programs are master’s degree programs or form part of graduate level education. Courses may include counseling theory, theology and officiating religious ceremonies. Some organizations require prospective chaplains to have between two and four years of religious leadership experience, and some require ordination. Even though many chaplains are ordained ministers, one does not have to be ordained to work as a chaplain, but he or she has to have an endorsement or commission from a faith group. An endorsement may be obtained after satisfying specific education and training objectives outlined by an authority in that faith…