preview

Cultural Diversity In Health Care Essay

Good Essays
Open Document

Racial and ethnic groups tend to vary in their death beliefs and practices. While some racial and ethnic groups are fairly similar in terms of their practices and beliefs surrounding death, others can be quite different. This can be challenging for healthcare professionals who have different beliefs than their patients regarding death. By understanding different groups, it can be beneficial to all individuals, and especially to individuals in healthcare institutions.
Buddhism is quite unique in their death beliefs and practices, especially compared to the Lutheran religion that I was sort of taught growing up. It is different from Lutheran beliefs in the fact that Buddhism has an emphasis on rebirth and an understanding that death is not the …show more content…

Their own beliefs can affect how they see other groups and interact with them. They also need to be aware of how they interact and provide information in medical situations in culturally appropriate ways (Sanders, 2016). It is important not to push their own beliefs onto the dying individual or their family so as not to alienate them from the medical system. It is also crucial to follow the religious and spiritual beliefs of the dying or deceased individual so as to not make the situation even more stressful for the family (Sanders, 2016). For example, if a Buddhist individual died in a hospital and strictly followed the no contact aspect of the religion, it is important to follow those wishes even if it does inconvenience the medical staff. Sometimes beliefs may not even be a part of a specific religious practice. For example, some individuals take comfort in the fact that someone, whether that someone was a human or an animal, was with them at the time of their death (Dosa, 2010). The idea that an animal could sense the impending death of an individual was something that many individuals took comfort in (Dosa, 2010). This belief was hampered by Dr. Dosa in the beginning when he actively denied that the cat could intuit when the individual was going to die (Dosa, 2010). This made it harder for some individuals as it could have been a sort of coping mechanism or a way to provide relief to the grieving

Get Access