Vibrant Valley Case Summary

Many Chinese people believe in traditional Chinese medical treatments, and if the doctors and nurses disregard their beliefs, then that could lead to mistrust. Chinese people may try traditional approaches first, and then seek medical care if they fail. Communication barriers may delay patients from getting medical treatment. Cross-cultural communication skills are extremely important to avoid miscommunication. A couple accommodations needed in nursing care would be to take some extra time to build a rapport with the patient before discussing any medical issues. Recognize how the Chinese culture views doctors and nurses, and encourage the patient to ask questions, and give them a chance to answer the questions. In the Chinese culture, when the patient is slow to respond to a question, or seems to be hesitant, it is simply a sign that respect is being given to the person that is asking the question (Cross-Cultural Communications for Healthcare Professionals, 2015). Chinese people speak in low volume and considered Americans to speak loud, so health care

Note: Patients will tell you what you want to hear, so be careful how you ask your questions.

It is not always easy to decide about the care of a patient, because the patient’s cultural beliefs do not always coincide with the beliefs of the nurse. Ephesians 4:2 in “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (English Standard Version). God has loved us unconditionally from the beginning of time, and has always been patient with us. It is time that humans show the love that God has for us onto others and respect one another no matter the differences. This paper will discuss the importance of respecting another person’s culture, what stigma is and whether if Lia’s family viewed her that way, brief history of the Hmong, the preventions that could have taken place, and how to incorporate

Lia Lee born and raised in America, but brought up as a Hmong, faced health issues specifically epilepsy. Her parents who practice the Hmong culture had a different view on how to handle Lia critical condition. Hmong did not believe in traditional medicine but believed in Txiv neeb, person with a healing spirit. Not only do they believe in a person with healing spirit to help cure their illness but also consider epilepsy as power; “Their seizures are thought to be evidence that they have the power to perceive things other people cannot see, as well as facilitating their entry into trances, a prerequisite for their journeys into the realm of the unseen” (Fadiman, 1998, p.21). Right at this moment is where you can tell conflict is going to occur.

The case study of Lia Lee is interesting and serves as a cautionary tale as it explores the consequences of cultural misunderstanding. In this case both the parents and medical staff sought the same thing; they both wanted Lia to have a positive outcome. Unfortunately, both groups had distinct ideas regarding how to achieve the common objective. This division was rooted in each sides individual cultural beliefs.

A vital foundation for a high-quality care delivery is an efficacious communication between the patient and the healthcare providers (Gengler & Jarrell, 2015). Fadiman (1997) recounted the conflict between a refugee family from Laos and a small hospital in California over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, in her book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Despite both sides wanting the best care for Lia, the lack of cross-cultural communication between her Hmong family and her American doctors, lead to her tragedy (Fadiman, 1997). Awareness regarding the disparities in culture and language of our patient with ours and how to address them should be taken into account when providing healthcare since the life of a

The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman talks about a young Hmong child who is treated by American doctors for her epilepsy. It goes on to explain how the differences in the two cultures, Hmong and American, affected the medical treatment of this child. Her doctors and her parents had different views on how to effectively treat her. This book demonstrates how the lack of communication across different cultures can impact the medical treatment and the outcomes of patients.

Asian cultures have a very strong family bond and this is very important to them and often surpasses that of an individual. The older family members are rarely questioned and therefore they are often the decision makers and will decide for themselves after being made to go to a hospital that they do not want treatment and all health care providers must respect this decision and be culturally competent in handling the situation. One must not make a patient or family feel bad due to their cultural decisions. We must look at our own beliefs as nurses in order to know what our beliefs are in order to understand those of our patients.

While reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” written by Anne Fadiman, I found how interesting it was to learn about the history of the Hmong people. These groups of people have been through a lot in history, and they fought to keep their culture alive when the Chinese people attacked them for not assimilating to their culture. The Hmong people have different birthing tradition then those of Americans. The Hmong people believed in “Dabs,” which is evil spirits that can steal the baby’s soul. When Lia was taken to MCMC for seizures, we see the conflict that both the doctor and parents had towards communication, which included different diagnosis by the doctors from the diagnosis of the parents. The Hmong people also believe that it is taboo to have surgery or blood

Anne Fadiman wrote this book to document the conflict between cultural barriers and how they affect medical issues. In this book, Lia Lee is a Hmong child was has epilepsy and battles cultural medical differences. The main struggle in this story is the conflict between the doctors and parents because they cannot seem to get on the same page. While writing the book, Fadiman stated that there was a “clash of cultures”. (Fadiman, preface) Meaning, there are two different sides to the story and the problem has not be solved.

The Hmong have been known to mistrust Western medicine and practices, instead preferring their own healers who would respect their wishes and followed very strict rules of conduct while also being very attentive, staying by their side for hours while Western doctors will only see patients for a few minutes and ask a lot of private questions. Also, the Hmong view epilepsy, also know as qaug dab peg, as a religious and holy experience, yet the Dr. murphy who diagnosed Lao Lee with epilepsy officially only sees it as a medical problem that can be suppressed with medication. So Lao Lee’s parent struggle with respecting that doctors regimen of medication to help her condition, because Lao Lee could be seen as a very respected spiritual leader in

If a patient makes an enquiry and you are unsure of it is better to seek the correct information from a colleague than to give the wrong information.

In China they have about 1.3 billion people, making up a little more than 20% of the world’s population. It’s no surprise that with that many people in one country that the culture there would hold many different beliefs and traditions. Chinese are known for many things and their health care practices are one of them. They use different medicines to treat the ill, have different techniques to insure that women have a good pregnancy and a healthy baby as well as old family traditions from how a family is ran to what they do when someone passes away. A lot of these traditions can compare to other cultures where many are also so different it takes some understanding to get used to them.

This topic and literature review will not encompass a hypothesis due to the purpose of this review which is to determine areas of improvement for the health issues facing this population. The use of this study is to explore and improve the negative stigmas associated with the individuals who are in desperate need of care to other healthcare professionals. Increased tolerance of the nation to cultural differences will improve health statuses for all by eliminating social stigmas and reducing the burden of illness for all.

People of the Chinese culture have many different beliefs and practices of medicine and healthcare. It is extremely important for nurses to be culturally competent and to be able to understand different practices and beliefs of different cultures to ensure that they are providing the best care and making their patients as comfortable as possible. According to Shih-Yu Lee, ritual is defined as “a social essential collective activity within a culture,” it is also well recognized that culture and ritual plays a fundamental role in “defining, sensing the health and illness, and searching help for problems” (Shih-Yu, Shu-Ling, and Yu-O, 2013). There are many rituals and beliefs of traditional Chinese medicine that are crucial to understand, the