The patient (Lena) believes that she can take care of her self through her sickness. From her cultural beliefs she has learned she takes no help from doctors. It shows a sign of weakness. Depending what background (culture) Lena comes from plays and important role in her beliefs. Culture is a set of learned beliefs and values that are applied to social interactions and interpretation of experiences. Cultural reasons for this underuse are examined.
Southeast Asian cultural attitudes toward suffering, such as beliefs that suffering is inevitable or that one’s life span is predetermined, can cause Southeast Asians not to seek health care. (Miles,1995). Her illness was not determined in this scenario because she did respond with the doctor about his findings. The patient is of a marginalized population. This patient’s perspective could have changed if she had someone else from her culture there to explain what was actually going on if they understood.
To make her situation better Lena could have been more humble and explained what her culture beliefs were about hospitals. If she had told them thank you for you time but I don’t want any help the outcome may have been better. Although, the staff is there to help those who want to be helped they may have been more understanding to her issue if it were explained to them. Caregivers only know what is in front of them at the time. With out the background info all communication is lost. There are many other ways Lena could have gone about taking care of this issue instead of being hostile. • Friend
The friend in this scenario is Susie. From her perspective she is a concerned friend. She was there from the start of the issues at hand. Susie seen her friend faint in class and escorted her to the emergency room. She knows her friends culture and beliefs but when she sees her friend faint that all went out the window. Susie’s attitude was calm and concerned. Her behavior was not able to be displayed due to the interruptions of her friend Lena’s interactions from being in the hospital. The relationship to the patient impacts perspective because Susie knows Lena’s views on health assists.
This situation got out of hand. Even though Lena believed Susie knew her feelings toward health care maybe she did not after all. If Lena gave her friend time to explain what happened when she was unconscious maybe things would have had a better outcome. Susie was coming from a caring friend’s point of view. She seen her friend needed help and she stayed by her side. If Susie did know her friends beliefs she would not have taken her to a hospital and would have probably called a family member instead.
With the story saying they were at the hospital it clearly shows proof Susie knew nothing about her friend’s beliefs at all. Being a caring friend as she was in this issue her friend showed her no respect at all for her actions. Lena could have explained to Susie and all could have been done without the yelling. • Medical assistant The medical assistant (MA) in this scenario takes it like the patient is a burden. She knows the patient is sick and needs help but she feels like her way is the only way to get the patient treated.
The MA’s attitude is rude and disrespectful. Her behavior is also rude and disrespectful. She takes it upon herself to restrain the patient and yell. Her attitude displayed that she had no time to deal with the patient during her time of need. She was very unprofessional. The assistant handled the patient with force. This assistant’s job description did not impact her perspective. Her job description is to put the patient’s needs first. In this scenario she neglected to do so. She walked in with an attitude and her attitude never changed.
If she displays this type of unprofessional behavior no patient will ever comply. This assistant could have calmed the patient down and explained to her where she was and what was going on. When someone has been unconscious they will be very confused when they awake in a different place than before. Being a MA she should have known these things. The MA needs to find out what is going on with the patient and could have found out the important culture background information to inform the doctor. Having the attitude this MA had clearly shows she has the wrong career.