Ethiopi A Poor Resource Country

Ethiopia has been a country for more than 3,000 year and is the only African country that has never been colonized. Ethiopians contain many ethnic groups and there are approximately 200 dialects and nearly 80 languages. There are two dominant religions in Ethiopia which Christian and Islam. They are traditional when it comes to healing and medical practices. Illness is often considered a punishment from God for a person’s sins or from the anger of spirits. Mental illness are seen as the result of evil spirits and are treated with prayer just as those who have diseases. When it comes to health, Ethiopians who come to the city often keep their traditional beliefs and attitudes

A Heart for the Work: Journeys Through an African Medical School by Claire L. Wendland is both an first hand account of time spent in an African medical school and hospital as well as a critique on Western medical practices. Dr. Wendland, an accomplished anthropologist and physician, provides a first hand account of her time in a Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Through this account she provides insight into the complete journey a student must take to become a doctor in conditions much different than our own. These insights and research are used to argue that medicine, or biomedicine as it is called, is part of a cultural system and is predicated on the cultural ideals and resources of developed nations. Wendland uses the differences in moral order, technology, and resources between the Malawian culture and our own culture to provide evidence for her main argument.

Every culture has its own way of dealing with sickness and illness. Growing up both in Angola and the United States, a person is able to reflect on cultures and their own myths as well as beliefs. These cultures are very different from one another in respect to their outlook on illness and hospitalization. Being Angolan in the American healthcare industry, they experience many different attitudes about how to best treat medical illness. During the time of sick or for curing disease in Angola, the people would rather see their traditional healer than a doctor for such things as; fever, stomachache, bad dreams, pain, or mental disorders. They don’t have access to the same kind of healthcare services as the Americans do. Only a few people can afford good medical care and unfortunately many have a life expectancy that is below fifty years of age mostly related to poverty related diseases such as; tuberculosis, malaria, and measles.

When working with different cultures in a health environment, it is necessary to have an understanding of that culture as different perspectives and values will have an effect on their medical care. Therefore, an understanding of Anishinaabe medicinal practices is crucial when considering the prevention and treatment of illnesses in the Anishinaabe community. Since traditional methods are not practiced in American healthcare, how information is perceived in the population as well as inclination to comply with different treatments are affected. How traditional practices can be incorporated in a Western healthcare setting as well as the challenges that exist in doing so will be evaluated.

As a high-income society, the United States when comparing the health care statistics to others world-wide is one of the most blessed nations in the world, but many people who struggle to pay for their health care find that our health care system has many weaknesses that effect the overall quality of care and their personal well-being. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being” (Macionis 236). There are many degrees of both physical and mental health and most people fall short of complete health and find themselves in need of medical care. One indicator that is used to measure a society’s overall health is the infant mortality rate, which is “the number of babies who die before their first birthday out of every thousand babies born” (Macionis 236). As expected, America’s infant mortality rates are low especially when coming comparing the rates to countries that are known to have economic hardships. Another means to measure the overall health well-being of a society is by determining the life expectancy at birth or the number of years that a person is expected to live in a given society. High-income nation’s life-expectancy rates are higher and most people can live long lives without serious health conditions until later in life. Low-income nations unfortunately can have much lower life expectancies. The economy and livelihood of a

In the summer of 2014, as a part of the Global Medical Brigades, I visited and stayed at a small village in Nicaragua for 11 days. While visiting Nicaragua, I was really astonished by the lack of health care as well as, the lack of any health system in particular. Families did not have access to any type of medicine, unless they lived in the village and had money to spend. However, this was not the case for many of the families in the village so several of them suffered and fell ill to diseases and infections. Also, the water was not very clean and access to clean water, once again, could only be found in cities. About 50% of the population lives in poverty in which 85% of this population struggle to live on more than one-dollar daily (Balint 1999). Several communities are limited in their access to basic health services because of poor road infrastructure, which makes transportation and trade tremendously difficult. Historically, each step forward that Nicaragua has taken in the realm of development has been counteracted with a step back in the form of a revolution, natural disasters, repealing of funding for governmental projects or foreign aid. The focus of my research is observing and recording the factors that contribute to the high mortality rate of the Nicaragua populations and how these challenges can be combatted and resolved. My paper will discuss the inaccessibility of health care and why it is difficult to reach among populations that live in poverty and rural

Addressing the extent of formal health care and use of medicines among African immigrants requires careful attention to cultural attitudes and perceptions that influence health care-seeking behaviors. There is tendency for culture and certain traditions to affect people’s perspective about prescription medications. I am writing about cultural clash with modern medicine. There are a lot of cultural barriers that could affect medication adherence especially for African immigrants. The reason I selected this topic is that I can relate to it very well. Also, I am going to be serving in a community where there are a lot of Africans and people migrating from Africa.

Accordingly, the Islamic religion shapes various aspects of Somali culture. When it comes to the definition what health or illness means, doctors and their immigrant patients do not see things the same way. To understand the Somali philosophy of health and illness, it is crucial to look at Somalis’ culture and religious practices that influence people’s daily lives. Most newcomers define health and illness as two conditions that are beyond their control. For example, the new immigrants cling to the general concept that human beings were created for a test, and part of their test is to be tested by God with the ailment and suffering. Illness is regarded as a test of how strongly a person in God. That is why most Somalis feel they are predestined to get good health and bad health before they were even born. When it comes to taking preventative method, patients’ access and response to health care services could be less. Somali communities often categorize pain into two sections: body and soul. Most patients seek medication and emergency when they suffer physical pain. Disease that afflicts with one’s soul is hardly ever discussed. The society feels shameful and stigma to ask for help when one of their family members has a mental illness.

The health of many women in Algeria which is part of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1990 were impacted by the poor health care system because they lived in poverty. Poverty caused these women to lack essential needs to live a quality life. They lacked or could not afford resources such as supplies, health care professionals, and facilities for healthcare, clean water, and waste disposal. This ultimately affected the health of women and their children. For instance, lack of clean water and waste disposal facilities can cause health abnormalities such as cholera or typhoid fever which can cause devastating deaths. This is a healthcare problem because of the lack of funding. The lack of funding prevents antibiotics from being used to prevent death, and prevents African’s from being vaccinated against typhoid fever. Another example of how poverty affects woman’s health is unintended pregnancy, which is because they are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. It's part of the health crisis because it includes a poor health system, and a lack of education about proper nutrition and behaviors during pregnancy. Complications in these pregnancies due to poor nutrition and not visiting the doctor regularly includes increased infant mortality. Infant mortality in the slums of Nairobe is 91.3% while it is 75.9% in urban areas where there is a better developed healthcare system. The inferiority of poor Africans in

In the area of health specifically, Ethiopian Jews have faced immense complications. This paper will answer the following questions: How do Ethiopian Jews’ religious and cultural perceptions on health and healing influence their daily lives in Israel? What are the causes and effects of exclusion from Israeli culture and in what ways does this impact their health outcomes? This topic is extremely important as Israeli officials work to try to decrease the disparity among citizens of Israel and as Israeli physicians try to understand the stories and beliefs of the Ethiopian Jewish community. In Israel today, Ethiopian Jewish immigrants have disproportionately negative health outcomes in multiple health issue areas that can be attributed to the effects of both discrimination, and differential practice and

There are five key health status indicators commonly used for countries. These indicators are infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, maternal mortality ratio, neonatal mortality rate, and under-5-mortality rate (childhood mortality rate). These indicators measure health status and make comparisons across people in the same country or across different countries (Skolnik, 2012). I believe the most important health status indicator in a poor is the life expectancy after birth. A very good example is a baby girl born in Japan is expected live to 85 years of age, have enough food in the table, vaccinated, and have a good education versus to the baby girl born in Sierra Leon is expected to live of just 36 years of age, have no food

America having been a very welcoming nation with welcoming people continues to experience immigrants from other parts of the world in search of better living standards and employment opportunities, hence has a high growing population with diverse cultures .This writer is a new immigrant from Africa .For that reason it is important for nurses to learn the health practices from different group of people to familiarize themselves with differing cultures. This writer did a health heritage assessment on two other different families .This heritage assessment tool was very helpful to this writer in getting

“Culture has an impact on people’s health, healing well belief systems, perceived causes of illness and disease, behaviors of seeking health care, and attitudes towards health care providers” (Edelman, Mandel & Berry, 2014, p. 26). Providing culturally competent care to the Somali population requires understanding of their health patterns and beliefs, which can be discordant with the western medical model. This lack of understanding is often presents challenges for Somali patients and their providers. Interviews of Somali women conducted by Pavlish, Noor & Brandt (2010), generally reflected a lack of preventative medicine, different expectations for treatment from their providers, and overall disappointment with their client/provider interactions. Preventative medicine is not a concept that Somalis are familiar with and therefore, many times Somalis use the E.R. for routine care when they are sick. One explanation for lack of experience

The sustainability of an average family in Nigeria is valued at less than 5 dollars a day. Notwithstanding the government’s preposition on the establishment of a health care system that is promotive, protective, preventive, restorative and rehabilitative to every citizen of the country within the available resources so that individuals and communities are assured of productivity, social well-being and enjoyment of living (F.M.H. 1988), the system, as is currently practiced is very inadequate in comparison to the Nigerian growing population and slow-paced economic development. According to the health manpower statistics, the ratio of the registered medical doctors as against the population’s need is put at 1:1,100 with modern medical facilities being administered in mega cities and little or none made available at the rural areas. As a result of lack of supervision or adequate provision for the essential needs of medical practitioners, doctors often times are faced with the conscientious decision to commute to the rural areas to administer Medicare on out-of-pocket expenses, which after a while becomes impossible to carry on. Thus the people in the rural area are left in the care of the traditional healer, who eventually cure their diseases with less charges than the bio-medical practice thereby saving the patients some money. The news of the efficacy of the traditional medical administration soon spreads to the urban cities and an

Medical knowledge is less than adequate in these societies, leading to much illness and a very high death rate. The infant mortality rate is overwhelmingly high, which is a reason for the high birth rates. Many infants do not make it through their first year of life before they get deathly ill - most of them do eventually die from their illness. The medical technology of modern society is so expensive to third world countries, making it extremely difficult for their society to stay healthy. Life expectancy is about 40-45 years in traditional societies.