Comparison of Cultural Beliefs in Healthcare, Essay Example

Introduction

As global interactions in every sphere become increasingly more common, a greater depth of awareness of outside cultures is made more accessible, and this impacts strongly on the field of nursing. More so than ever before, American nursing practices are exposed to the Chinese profession, as Eastern values, methodologies and ideas are being evaluated and applied in Western hospitals. The enormous degree of cultural diversity present in these two instances may lead to misunderstanding and conflict, but the advantages far outweigh the efforts required to achieve them, and a greater study of Chinese nursing can only bring about better American nursing. The paper addresses the important question of how do we integrate nursing professionals from other countries into US nursing practices whilst allowing and catering for cultural differences?

There is no way of escaping the fact that for many centuries any form of Chinese medical practice was considered alien, and usually backwards, to Western practitioners. The bias was based almost entirely on an accepted and long-standing inability to communicate; with virtually no trade arrangements of any kind in place between Asia and the United States until very recently, information exchange was unthinkable. Not only was mutual hostility the keynote in 19^th and 20^th century interactions between China and the US, but the US refusal to recognize the People’s Republic of China until 1971 emphasizes just how modern these relations are.

This is stressed because it highlights the massive dichotomy within the situation. Medicine in any society is always among its most ancient arts, in the West as well as the East, so the advances, changes and flourishing of it in these separated cultures was a wasted opportunity of enormous proportions, and for thousands of years. Meanwhile, misconceptions on both sides are free to blossom through ignorance and mistrust.

We are only now beginning to fully grasp the rich legacies of Chinese medicine as practiced by nurses. While nursing itself as a profession in China lagged hundreds of years behind Western societies, it is only logical to nonetheless conclude that both ancient and modern medical practices exist today through it. As the Chinese medical traditions in scientific form are documented as dating back to approximately 500 B.C., there is much for the Western nurse to assimilate and learn from.

Even a cursory examination of traditional Chinese medicine reveals an inherent and fundamental difference in how it compares to Western medicine. Today, as was evident thousands

of years ago, Chinese medical practices are inextricable from philosophic and spiritual ideologies. The medicine never exists apart from these, as the spirituality relies upon the medicinal component. “Perhaps the single most important word in Chinese medicine is ‘correspondence’. This means that two entities which might otherwise seem unrelated are linked in a bidirectional manner… It is this concept of correspondence which makes Chinese medicine holistic both in terms of the body and the world at large…” (Flaws, 1994, p.1)

Western, and certainly American, medicine is marked by a consistent effort to treat illness as a strictly physical manifestation of disease. Despite more modern influences and acceptances of the importance of addressing psychological, emotional and spiritual factors as being directly tied to illness, the greater part of Western medical science relies solely on science alone. We have in fact set upon this road deliberately and, if there is a guiding philosophy behind most Western medical treatment, it is that all concerns save the strictly physical and biological are interferences in healing.

Diversity in Nursing

As diverse as the medical foundations of Chinese and American/Western culture were and remain, so too is the role of nurse seen as dictated by each culture’s perceptions. In America nursing was a respectable and naturally correct occupation for a woman, as it was viewed as an extension of the female role of caregiver. Not so in China, and not until the late 19^th century: “To the Chinese, nursing was considered a servant’s work that was an unbecoming profession for a self-respecting, educated youth, particularly women” (Chung, 2005, p.99). While it is worth noting that Americans seemingly valued the nursing profession, American esteem of it was nonetheless based as well on a double-standard, and women were predominantly nurses because

It was a profession that fell within the limited and acknowledged abilities of women.

Thankfully, both roles and viewpoints have changed, and on both sides of the world. American nurses, male and female, are increasingly empowered to go far beyond traditional expectations of comfort giving and hand-holding. The nurse today, Chinese or Western, who does not continually and actively try to educate themselves further and enlarge their professional capacity is the rare nurse.

To this end it is highly desirable that American nurses take the initiative in assessing how Chinese medical techniques may be inculcated within American practice. The nurse’s role has always been that of the ‘intermediary’ of sorts; the nurse walks the ground between the more urgent care of the physician and the daily well-being of the patient, and there is no better field in which to incorporate practices more ideologically based. The nurse has a sense of the patient usually far broader than that of the attending doctor, and can therefore better assess how treatment not strictly scientific can be beneficial.

Conclusion

In this introducing of foreign concepts can the Western nurse bring about an eventual and mutually productive merging of two anciently opposed approaches to medicine? Today’s nurse is poised to effect change in a manner uniquely their own, by a combination of assisting the physician and being more acquainted with the patient before and after surgery or treatment. From this vantage point, optimally, the nurse can best apply the most worthwhile aspects of what we can glean from Chinese medical culture in years to come.

Globalization has introduced a far greater degree of movement between peoples and nations. This has included both the medical and nursing profession. Resulting from this we have now become exposed to a wider degree of cultural differences.  The integration of practice and techniques present a unique opportunity to learn from one another and improve the overall quality of best practice by making improvements in the techniques towards nursing and medical care. A more holistic approach may well improve both communications and patient care.

References

Chung, M.K.M. (2005.)  Chinese Women in Christian Ministry. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Flaws, B. (1994.)  Statements of Fact in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Boulder, CO: Blue Poppy Press, Inc.