Integrative Intercultural Communication Paper Elie De Jesus COM/360 December 13, 2010 Don Case Integrative Intercultural Communication Paper “Health is a universal human aspiration and a basic human need. The development of society, rich or poor, can be judged by the quality of its population’s health. How fairly health is distributed across the social spectrum, and the degree of protection provided from disadvantage due to ill-health. Health equity is central to this premise.Strengthening health equity - globally and within countries - means going beyond contemporary concentration on the immediate causes of disease to the ‘cause of the causes’- the fundamental structures of social hierarchy and the socially determined conditions these create in which people grow, live, work, and age (Professor Sir Michael Marmot, 2010).
As the professor states above, good health is desired and required by all. Each member of society, around the globe, would either have good health, or at least have access to the facilities which would enable them to better their health conditions.If they are unable to communicate what it is they need so that their health can improve then they should have someone that could explain to their primary care physician what they need. Or if their primary care physician has the understanding of nonverbal coding, then they should be able to use that to communicate to their patients but that should not be the only way. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that health is a state of complete well-being; physical, mental, and emotional.
Good health is more than being healthy but having a healthy environment and a stable mind as well.In a perfect world there would be no illness to be had for anyone, but since this is no perfect world by anyone’s comparison being able to have great health or the means of it is better than nothing at all. The impact of cultural variations on intercultural interpersonal relationships with in the health industry is the unique challenges that are presented to the individuals practicing medicine. For example; “a 10 month old infant [will end up] vomiting and on an IV in a hospital because a nurse with limited Spanish at a clinic hadn’t explained the proper dose of an iron supplement to the Spanish speaking parents.The parents had given the baby a typical teaspoon of medicine- more than 12 times the indicated dose” (Fishman, 2006.
P. 88). The reason this would happen is because of the inability to communicate effectively because of cultural and linguistic barriers can result in poor health outcomes. Health care situations in the US are changing every day due to our diverse population from different countries prevents us from communicating clearly with each other.
Many other countries send their students to learn from the US and because of that our cultures are diversely mixed. Because of that we should at least be able to communicate with each other and our patients from other countries who now live in the US. Personal dignity is impacted in this intercultural industry setting by showing how a difference in communication can change a bad situation to worse. The healthcare industry is the worst place to have intercultural communication differences. You can ill afford to have mistakes’ when dealing with other people’s lives.
If you can’t understand what is going on, you run the risk of making incorrect diagnosis and turning the situation twice as worse than it should have been. This is the reason why most US citizens would rather deal with their illness on their own before they think of paying money to go to the doctor’s office. For instance look at the example that we had in our final quiz; “Anahid is a Muslim immigrant who finds herself in an emergency room in the U. S. A male doctor and a male nurse attend to her. When her husband arrives he is enraged to learn that her modesty has been violated.
Now this would have never happened if there was someone of Muslim culture on call or on staff to educate the doctor and his attendant that this patient because of her religious beliefs and her culture she could not be attended to by any male. Because of this her husband saw their help as a terrible offense. I remember looking at one of my TV shows one evening called Hawthorne, that day a pregnant Muslim lady came in with some terrible complications with her pregnancy. While her husband was there he tried to tell them in Arabic that o male doctors where to touch his wife.
The chief nurse could not understand but before she disregarded him she went to one of her nurses that served in the Afghanistan war to try and translate for her what was going on. She could not understand their dialect but from their nonverbal ways she was able to explain to the chief of staff that due to religion and culture she could not be touched but she was not sure why. They went and found a female doctor and when the husband did not object to her touching the wife, they were able to understand a little of what he was saying.So for these examples we can see that in the health care industry communication is a very big plus.
Personal dignity allows one to seek help, to show that they are willing to learn and accept help in order to keep these mistakes from happening. The health care industry is now so diverse that things like that should not happen, but it is hard to rescue and solve all situations. Interpersonal relationships would improve with my implementation strategy as a part of an intercultural experience by allowing all involved to see how the other communicates.Just thinking that you know how someone feels or seems is not the only way.
In order to fully understand someone who speaks a different language you must first know the syntactic rules of other languages. You must first understand that each culture may organize their ideas, persuade others, and structure conversations differently. For example if I speak creole and you speak Spanish we will not understand each other in a conversation. But if something is wrong with me by way of explanation I should be able to show you in some way what ails me so that you can fix my problem.So basically if we understand each other on a nonverbal plateau we can communicate in other ways. The industry specific roles of cultural variations in intercultural and interpersonal relationships are our way of adapting.
Adaptation is the process by which people establish and maintain stable, helpful, and mutually shared relationships with others. In the Health Care Industry you have to adapt very quickly especially in a country where you don’t speak or understand the language and only half of the culture.It puts you in a very vulnerable position because you must find ways of communicating well and long enough to get your job done without any consequences. Interpersonal relationships refer to all kinds of social interaction amongst people. The negative side of interpersonal relationships has been highlighted through studies of aggression, conflict, and alienation.
Most of the industry roles are that of surgeons, nurses, physicians, and assistants, they are all equipped with the knowledge needed to help you with your health.Intercultural competent communicators must contend with issues of prejudice and discrimination in a manner that is appropriate and effective. For instance in the Health Care Industry this can be most difficult for the practicing physicians because they have to give their patients the sense that even though I don’t understand your language if you trust in me I can help you. This is very hard to do especially when you have patients that are religiously inclined.
They are the ones that will not allow you to treat them based on your ethnicity, gender, or race. It does not matter if they are in dire need of your services.So for my strategy I would implement a rotation system in all hospitals which would allow at any shift they must have someone that is of a different culture, and ethnicity and always have a spare on call in case of any mishaps. This would ensure that every doctor or attending physician is accompanied with an aid from another culture that is equipped with the knowledge and training to get the job done in case of an instance where the doctor is not able to perform his duties. This will eliminate the language barrier as well as some of the culture differences that may be involved.
References Fischman, J. (2006, Jul 17th).Bridging the Language gap. Some hospitals make non English speaking patients feel right at home. Retrieved from U.
S. News & World Paper 141 (2), 88. Lustig, M. W. , & Koester, J. (2006).
Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures. Retrieved from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/TOC. aspx? assetdataid=25fb9b6a-472f-4da2-a6e3-db72e67e7b7a&assetmetaid=d08dcbf2-c5e6-49dd-bb20-5d7507e7fe1e.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot. Interim Statement of the commission on Social Determinants of Health. Retrieved from http://www. ucl.
ac. uk/epidemiology/people/marmotm. htm .
