Influence Of A Patient 's Behavior

Like other ethnic minority groups in America, Arab Americans face daily challenges in their overall development and well-being. These challenges take the form of discrimination, stereotyping, and general negative reactions to them as an ethnic group.

Health care providers need to be culturally competent and aware of the assumptions that their own culture makes in order to effectively provide health care services with cultural sensitivity. What we deem appropriate, may cause extreme discomfort for some and we often make these assumptions unknowingly. Effective and culturally appropriate communication is the first step in achieving equity of access to health care. Non-verbal cues such as hand gestures, eye contact, smiling and other mannerisms differ between cultures and often affect how successful your health care interaction will be. (Fanany, R. 2012, p.232)

I will bring the trait of respectful by being polite and courteous to not only my patients but also to my coworkers. And last I will be culturally sensitive by being sensitive to the unique needs of the patients that I care for. By being cultural sensitive I will not only respect the patients culture by I will also make changes in my care by taking into account the patients culture to help them obtain optimal health.

When culturally competent nurses interact with other cultures, they observe how members of the culture communicate, watching for verbal and non-verbal cues. Eye contact is important to identify. For some cultures direct eye contact is not polite. Touch for some cultures is prohibited. If needed, nurses should explain the reason for touching the patient before proceeding. In some cultures males cannot be caregivers of females. Silence doesn’t always mean miscommunication or patient apathy. For some cultures is a positive non-verbal cue or a sign of respect or agreement. Space and distance is very important when providing care. Patients can place themselves close or far from the nurse based on their culture. Healthcare beliefs also vary from cultures. Some cultures are compliant with cares while others may not be very cooperative. Based on these observations, nurses can plan their plan of care based on the patient’s needs (Maier-Lorentz, 2008 Journal Of Cultural Diversity). Nurses also need to observe pain non-verbal cues, food preferences, family arrangements and general norms and interactions.

What are Arab Americans? An individual can be classified as “Arab” if the person speaks Arabic, practices Islam, and identifies with the traditions of Arabic-speaking peoples. (Aguirre and Turner 276)These individuals are usually subject to negative and differential treatment by others. It is essential to identify the differential treatment of Arab Americans by others in society. The mistreatment of Arabs in the United States can be contributed to many factors; however, there have been certain events that have occurred in the United States, which have increased and enraged these strong emotional feelings in many Americans. Discrimination and stereotypes of a culture or group mainly develops from a lack of understanding. We can become a

Coming from an Arab American household, there has always been an emphasis on higher education and higher socio economic status. I believe that it is something that can be found in various Arab American Communities in the United States and these standards set in the household show when you look at the statistics as to where Arab Americans stand on both educational and socio economical scales. This paper will look into the history of Arabs in the United States, as well as the demographics of the Arab community in the U.S, and cultural and physiological backings that may all have influence on education. My goal for this research paper is to find the reasons behind the Arab American strive for education and socioeconomic success and whether the Arab culture has a positive or negative influence on the success of Arab Americans.

Arab Americans are defined primarily of their religious identity and they reside in all 50 states. The first generation of immigrants from the Middle East dates back to late 1800s. The majority of immigrants’ population came from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. Religion plays an important role in the Arab society and most of their way of life is not necessary because of their religion. Like many other immigrants, the reason these immigrants migrated to the United States was to escape the religious persecution, an opportunity to build a better life. Majority of how Arabs interact and the way their culture is has to do with the Koran and it is one of the foundations of Islamic law. In the Arab American culture, family is an important aspect and everyone plays their respective role. Fathers are the head of the households and are expected to provide for his wife and children. The women has restrictive education and they help support the family by caring for the house. Kids take on a role are taught by their parents depending on their gender. Boys are most likely to follow the footsteps of the father to prepare to care for his own family one day. The girls learn the basics of running a household. It is common for the children to live with their parents until they marry or live with them to care for them as they age and can no longer care for themselves. The Arab culture also value respecting the elders and they are often the decision makers in the family. The family

Respecting patients encompasses many things such as confidentiality of personal information, values, ethnicity, age etc. Being aware of how other cultures act or don’t act shows respect, sensitivity and value towards the patient, which will hopefully make them feel comfortable and trustworthy of the clinician. As a dental hygienist I hope to make every single patient that sits in my chair feel at ease, valued and respected enough to confide in me with their oral health questions, which ultimately makes their appointment considerably more worthwhile and personal. Not only does respect apply towards patients, but similarly to coworkers and persons above me. Due to personal experiences, the workplace will not remain a mature, professional, happy environment to work in if not all members of the dental team respect and get along with one another. This would make going to work dreadful and possibly affect my reputation for the future. Patients will definitely notice the tension and may be turned away from coming back for continuing care, which now puts my ethical responsibilities and duties towards that patient at

Prior to walking in, my expectations for what I was about to partake in and experience were all over the place. I didn’t know whether to expect the absolute worst types of situations going on such as people being rushed into medical rooms or the most basic situations such as patients waiting for a strep throat test. I did expect to see a wide range of patients in terms of race, class, age, and gender. Contrary to the patients, I didn’t expect to see a wide range of race, class, age, and gender within the staff. I expected to see mostly female nurses, and male doctors, majority being Caucasian and middle age. I didn’t expect there to be that much security or any type of possible crime that could go on within a medical facility. I expected the waiting area and facility to be very large, large enough to accommodate a lot of patients at once. Lastly, I expected that taking our field notes would be a challenge because writing notes down in front of patients would be awkward and during interviews it would be hard to conduct a good interview while writing the whole time.

Miscommunication, medication errors, and lack of compliance commonly occur in the healthcare field. These are just a few of the errors that occur due to the patient being from a different culture than the physician or healthcare worker. Those three errors alone have a huge impact on our healthcare today. If we could have a better understanding of other cultures that are different from our own we could have a dramatic decrease in errors and a great increase in healthcare participation. Training must be completed and must be done in more than one way. The first step is to make sure that all physicians and health care workers get the same nationwide training that focuses on improving cultural competence. How this is completed must be done in more than one way (Horwitz, 2001).

Teaching hospitals are meant to train future professionals while ensuring that they provide the uppermost care for their patients. However, what some teaching hospitals fail to maintain is a strong and positive doctor-patient relationship. You would think that television shows and films

Cultural competence can indicate the differences that exist among various ethnic and cultural groups in our country. As a healthcare provider, it is essential to understand the diverse cultures and their values, traditions and there history, so with all these in mind we can provide high quality patient care. Recognizing these needs can be accomplished with continuous education and training. We are in a culturally diverse society where the healthcare providers need to increase their awareness and sensitivity toward different patient populations and work to understand culturally influenced health behaviors. We are interacting with many people from varied cultural origins and ethnic backgrounds who bring with them values and beliefs that can differ from our expectations. Each patient is unique in their needs so understanding these cultural differences can aid communication and thereby improve patient care. Some cultures may be offended by direct eye contact or asking personal questions that are necessary for the health history may be recognized by them as an inexcusable invasion of privacy. Patient cross-cultural communication with other cultures in a way that minimizes misunderstandings and maximizes trust between the patients and healthcare providers. To avoid any complications and to decrease the likelihood of any liability and malpractice claims, healthcare organizations should follow and meet legislative regulatory and the accreditation

Sayed et al. (2003) research show the importance of Arab American unique characteristics affect the healing process for those individuals who are not custom to the American way of life. Arab American families is only looking for respect from other cultures that already prejudge them by only seeking their culture from an outside view. The common feeling of at Arab American is alienation from a American because of their culture beliefs, customs, and values. Prejudice and discrimination for Arab Americans may cause major psychological issues (i.e. depression, low self-esteem, and lack of

Respect, effective communication, empathy, and morality are the cornerstones of cultural competency. Healthcare professionals are advocates for patients and learning the beliefs, behaviors, and being sensitive to other’s way of life is critical in patient care. Obstacles for culturally competent care include xenophobia, prejudice, bigotry, stereotyping, as well as an aversion or misunderstanding of western medicine within the US healthcare system due to an unfamiliarity or a lack of knowledge of practices. It is imperative that one puts their own judgements and assumptions aside, a positive rapport is built, and effective communication is always achieved when caring for patients to ensure the best possible care is given. It is a healthcare

In any case, providing competent care to a patient of a different culture must first start with an understanding of the culture itself (Potter & Perry, 2011). Culture is