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Cultural Influences On Health And Social Care Essay

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Social/Cultural Influences on Healthcare When the subject of social and cultural factors arises, many people automatically think of physicality such as race, gender, and physical ability. However, sociocultural influences are multidimensional: religion, values, attitudes, sexual orientation, generation, social class, family; and professional, political, and other personal affiliations are examples of different groups a person may affiliate themselves with. Humans are unique and diverse; each group we belong to, or value we hold can be used to categorize us with other individuals of the same situation. Therefore, one does not prescribe only to a narrow window, rather they manifest characteristics of numerous different group identities. These influences affect how we perceive, respond to, and retain experiences, thus helping or hindering our environment whether in be at home, work, or in the general public. For this journal, I will focus on some of the social and cultural influences I have personally witnessed in the healthcare setting and my perception of its effect on patient care. …show more content…

In this role I was able to observe interactions rather than being a part of the interactions. During a care conference the elder was asked how she felt about the food. “I like the food here.” she replied. She was then questioned on her social interactions, most notably why she spent much of her time in her room including meals. There were several questions along the lines of her possible unhappiness, depression, lack of activity variety, unappealing meals, poor table-mates, what can the facility do to make it better, and so on. It was obvious the staff were concerned about the elder isolating herself as a negative

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