Introduction
People’s experiences of death and dying are profoundly affected by social and cultural differences.
Socio-economic factors such as standard of living, economic infrastructure, diet, environmental disasters, war, sexual pervasiveness, disease etc all interconnect to affect the way in which they frame an individual’s experience of death and dying. The unequal distribution of resource throughout the world and the differing levels of food shortage, disease, war and natural disasters need to be taken into account when considering how health care workers can improve the needs of people who are dying.
Culture, identity and personal beliefs all have a profound impact on an individual’s choices in the context of the dying
…show more content…
They should not see the elderly as a burden and think only in terms of medicating the elderly. They need to challenge the view that ‘Good death is when a person grows old and dies peacefully’ (Block 1, Unit 3, page 116). Health care workers need to have appropriate training to identify the many unmet social needs of the elderly and provide better access to palliative care. Rather than seeking solely to provide a peaceful death, they should also look to provide a dignified death and provide the best level of care they can offer to the elderly patient – taking into account the patients social and emotional care needs and observing their personal choices.
Cultural differences
We live in an increasingly multicultural world, with global inequalities and world events such as natural disasters and wars. This means that we are surrounded by many different competing and challenging ideas about a ‘good death’ (Block 1, Unit 4, page 120). Trying to recognise different attitudes, beliefs and cultural practices could assist those caring for the dying and could contribute towards greater equality (Block 1, Unit 5, page 120).
In the audio for Block 1, Unit 5, Activity 5.3 Nurat describes her father’s death in the family home in Bradford. She talks about her cultural background and the importance of family members caring for the dying person rather than leaving them in a care home or hospice. For Nurat, visiting
Death is inevitable part of human experience, which is often associated with fear of unknown, separation, and spiritual connection. Death is an individual experience, which is based on unique perceptions and beliefs. Fear of death and dying seems to be a universal phenomenon, which is closely associated with apprehension and uneasiness. Death is allied with permanent loss, thus personal experiences of grief are similar in many different cultures. There are different mourning ceremonies, traditions, and behaviors to express grief, but the concept of permanent loss remains unchanged in cross cultural setting. With this paper I will identify cross-cultural perspectives on death and dying, and will analyze
Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely
Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that
Facing Death is a compelling documentary on, oftentimes, the final journey patients and their families will venture through together in life. The documentary seeks to capture how the patients and their families respond to the inevitability of death. The film includes families who respond to the issue by allowing their family member, the patient, to pass through the door of death without aggressive care, while there are yet other families who insist on everything being done to delay the moment of death. This topic of fighting death is attributed with producing much debate. On one hand are those who do not see the point of fighting death, however, on the other hand, there are those who believe that delaying death and staying alive is what ought to be done. Personally, from what I understand of either party, I think that I am a part of the later party. In addition, this issue naturally delves into what one believes occurs after death, as it is an issue dealing directly with death. This also compels me to view this topic from the viewpoint of the later party.
Craig Bowron broaches the subject matter sensitively as much as possible striking a balance between the interests of individuals opposing his notions while at the same time emboldening the resolve of the many that support his idea. He, however, uses raw statements that are likely to irk the audience in some instances. Statements such as “once you have shoved some guy’s guts back into his stomach” can be rather upsetting to conservative audience that would rather be spared such graphic details. The next statement “everyone wants to grow old and die... but the truth is that most of us will die in pieces” also may rub readers in the wrong way. The author fails to capture the sensitivity of death as perceived by a number of people or cultures. The author acknowledges opposing argument by citing that the desire to have loved ones around would go to great lengths to use medication and technology. This goes to show that the writer understands that his opinion need not be paramount on the audience’s decisions and understanding of the article subject matter.
When a person is dying, each culture has traditions and beliefs that influence end- of-life care. This paper discusses cultural beliefs and practices surrounding end of life care and death within the Latino culture, particularly focusing on people of Mexican origin. According to Spector (2013), of the over 50.5 million Hispanic individuals living in the U.S, Mexicans make up the overwhelming majority of the Hispanic community. Understanding how Mexican-Americans traditionally view end-of-life care allows a health care worker to better serve the patient as the patient transitions from acute care to palliative care or hospice care. Cultural attitudes influence the process of decision making at the end-of-life.
This research explores the literature across cultures on death and dying in order to highlight the impact of culture on reactions to death and the dying process. A theoretical framework is established, using Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of dying, followed by a succinct discussion of the reactions and attitudes toward death and the dying process of four cultures (Buddhist, Hindu, Native American and American). By illustrating the different reactions and attitudes toward death of these cultures, it is revealed that through increased cultural understanding health care workers can provide more personalized care to the dying.
When an individual dies, their death can greatly impact the loved ones they leave behind. Each mourner may feel and perceive the death differently from one another, but one common factor that can influence the mourner’s beliefs, values, and views about a person’s death is their culture. Their culture can regulate the way the mourner copes with the death of a loved one, what they do with the physical deceased body, and how they may honor the dead afterwards (Cartaret, 2011). For me, my culture is relatively related to the Catholic, Hispanic American culture, which is a broad and subjective category, but it is what I believe that guides my views towards life and death. I have additionally chosen to learn about the cultural practices of Hinduism of Indians on death
This is recognized to be an issue, and throughout the article the authors provided an understanding of how palliative care and end-of-life care are provided too late for a patient and should be provided at an earlier time in order to bring more comfort to the patients. The authors suggest that when and how end-of-life care is provided should be altered, with nursing ethics in mind, so that patients and nurses may feel better about the care they receive. This source will help my research by providing information on how changing the policies of end-of-life care and palliative care can result in the patient feeling a relief from their suffering and ultimately feeling more comfortable. This will also help my argument in how altering the current policies and focusing on providing better end-of-life care can lead to the diminishment of physician-assisted
As people approach the end of their lives, they with their families and their caregivers, face many tasks and decisions. They may be psychological, spiritual, or medical in nature, but all end-of-life choices and medical decisions have complex psychological components, ramifications, and consequences that have a significant impact on the suffering patients and their caregivers.
Dr. Ira Byock’s latest book, The Best Care Possible: A Physician’s Quest to transform Care Through the End of Life, is a remarkable book written from a personal perspective as one of the foremost palliative-care physicians in the country. Dr. Byock shares stories of his experience with patients in his clinical experience to illustrate how end-of-life care affects each person. He explains what palliative care really is and how to make humane choices in a world obsessed with conquering death. Byock presents an agenda for end-of-life care that stresses compassion, dignity, and each patient being viewed as a unique case with the opportunity to partake in shared decisions amongst a team of professionals and family members. Dr. Byock is an advocate of dying well in a society marked by a fear of death; his highly personal account provides thought-provoking vignettes of how people struggle to make the right decisions in the winter of their lives. Byock urges society to embrace the reality of death and transform the medical community into an environment that will allow patients to live the last of their days in comfort with dignity and peace. This book is a vitally important piece of literature for everyone to devour with fervor. Everyone needs to understand the inevitability of death and the environment end-of-life care can present in what will be the final moments of life.
This paper explores the many ways cultures deal with death, both before and after. Most cultures have different practices when it comes to rituals before and after death, but some rituals and beliefs are surprisingly similar. When it comes to health care, nurses need to be aware of any cultural needs of a client in this emotional time. Asking questions about what the patient and family want to happen is very important. For example, Muslims would like the same sex washing their loved one, and they would like the family to do it themselves. The nurse needs to know this to provide culturally competent care.
This illustrates the interesting idea that death is not simply a medical or legal term, but a cultural abstraction that can be freely interpreted by different
In the New York Times bestseller Being Mortal, surgeon and author Atul Gawande tackles just what may be the most difficult challenge of his profession, learning how to handle the ‘end-of-life process.’ Throughout his book, he recites the stories of several individuals, in which the trajectory from a state of independence to one of death can easily be traced in each. Although Gawande does acknowledge that death is inevitable, he emphasizes that individuals of society, especially those that work in the health care field, have not yet learned how to deal with this slow process well, if at all. Surprisingly, he does not blame patients or the intrinsic difficulty that death itself brings, but in fact is relentless in the criticism of his fellow physicians, stating ‘we’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival…it is to enable well-being.’ (Gawande, Atul. Being Mortal pp.259) This paper aims to further analyze Gawande’s position on end-of-life care, understand why palliative care must play a larger role than interventional medicine during a patient’s last few weeks and determine whether a physician’s role during this crucial time should be that of a ‘healer’ or a ‘sustainer of the soul.’
Human beings differ in their beliefs and behaviors because of culture. Culture is the way someone experience life events such as birth, death, and how they seek food, water, and shelter. As humans we create our own world, emotions, events, and we are control in our everyday life. Every culture has a different way they view things, and that’s simply because of the way they were raised and brought into this world. Different cultures outlook on death can be completely opposite. One culture thinks that death marks a passage of a person from one world to another. Others think death is an ending. Some fear death and others do not. Personally I fear death, I’m scared of the unknown, but that’s just how I was raised. Another example of how cultures differ is food. As an American I personally would never think twice about drinking milk. I’ve been drinking milk sense I was born, but people in china think milk is “undrinkable”. In America we have dogs for pets, and in other countries they raise dogs for meat. We just need to be able to accept and understand the fact that everyone’s different, everyone has there own beliefs and behaviors.