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People of Indian, Turkish, and Vietnamese Heritages

Differences in culture affect how patients perceive and understand health care. It also influences how patients cope with illnesses. These beliefs and practices in turn affect how evidence-based health care is delivered. This article further explains the health care beliefs of three heritages; Indian, Turkish, and Vietnamese culture, and how they affect the delivery of health care.

People of Indian heritage

The Indian heritage has a tradition of medical healing that dates back to more than 2000 years ago. All the medical systems that exist in this heritage attribute sickness to imbalances in the body. Most of them rely on herbal medicine for both preventive and curative measures. They also consider homeopathy as a remedy. In this heritage, there is an old system of medication referred to as Ayurveda. Under this system, the body is made up of forces called dosha (Bandikallu et al., 2020). When there is balance within the dosha, someone is considered healthy and whenever there is an imbalance, then it is a disease. Families do not allow doctors to relay on bad news to the patients and families are involved in making significant health decisions. For example, in the case of an organ transplant, the decision must be shared between the physicians, the patient, and the family members.

Their belief in traditional medicine forces the medical practitioners to embrace native doctors, and sometimes incorporate their efforts in the treatment process. Sometimes, doctors call native doctors when a patent is admitted to the hospital and gives them a private room. They may go the extra mile to pay the native doctor for the consultation services. When delivering evidence-based health care, physicians have to consider the interaction between traditional and modern medicine. In cases when traditional medicine is neutral, patients may be advised to tale traditional medicine alongside modern medicine. Physicians must also learn to involve families in making major health decisions. They also learned to avoid telling the patient bad news such as the worsening of the condition.  Patients should be given the freedom to make free and independent choices regarding their health.

People of Turkish Heritage

With regards to the Turkish community, they have both natural and supernatural beliefs related to health, and the beliefs in natural causes are more frequent. They adhere to traditional beliefs and practices and perform traditional and religious practices for healing. In some cases, they believe it is the will of God while in others, they attribute the sickness to spiritual being popularly known as the jinns. Some diseases are believed to be caused by failure to follow religion and lack of preventing self from jinns. The idea of the ‘evil eye’ is common and is associated with diseases such as personality-related disorders, lack of success, and psychological orders. Illnesses such as emotional distress, headaches, confusion, and general body weaknesses were attributed to sorcery. Patients prioritized the impact of family conflicts, individual characteristics, and issues related to work. Mental illness is considered an embarrassment and the victims do not seek modern health care.  Today, the modern approach to health care has expanded significantly. Most city dwellers have access to public, modern health facilities that may not be accessed by rural dwellers. 

Having these beliefs influences the delivery of evidence-based health care. Physicians must aim to understand the cultural beliefs of their patients to enhance effective and culturally competent communication. Physicians also need to acknowledge the position of folk medicine in society and ensure the interaction between traditional and modern medicine is managed. Health education should be culturally sensitive, bearing in mind the various beliefs of the people. Health education should focus on issues such as mental health and encourage citizens to avoid stigmatizing victims of mental illnesses. Physicians must be sensitive to family values when dealing with patients.

People of Vietnamese Heritage

The Vietnamese culture record the lowest attendance to health care facilities (Purnell & Fenkl, 2019)). They use traditional medicine alongside modern medicine. They view illness as something that cannot be avoided in the course of life. The Vietnamese heritage believe that sickness is organic, and they rarely attribute it to supernatural powers. They believe that doctors can diagnose patients by simply feeling their pulse during the first visit. They do not undertint more technical processes of lab testing and diagnosis. Procedures that are considered invasive are scary to them and they believe it may force the soul to leave someone’s body. Most of them resist venepuncture due to the belief that it interferes with the body balance and they believe that western medicine is too strong for their physiology. Mental illness is considered shameful and victims rarely seek medical attention. Family planning is seen as too strong ad may lead to disabled babies. Physical therapies such as cupping are common. Acupuncture is a common drug that is believed to treat visual problems, arthritis, and many other disorders.

This culture affects the compliance of patients to modern medication. For example, patients may fail to follow doctors’ instructions and take fewer drugs because they believe modern medicine is too strong for their bodies. Health practitioners may also be forced to raise more awareness about modern drugs and encourage people to seek medical attention. Doctors need to try s possible not to be invasive especially when attending to female patients. When it is necessary, they should take the initiative to communicate why they must do so. Doctors are also required to engage in cultural competence interactions with patients as a way of being culturally aware. Cultural awareness and competence minimize the language and cultural barriers between physicians and patients. When dealing with older patients, physicians should also try to remain calm in order to provide adequate care.

References

Bandikallu, S., Pratap, K. V. N. R., Padma, T. M., Kalyan, V. S., & Srikanth, P. (2020). Assessment of Attitude on Indian Heritage Preservation among Health Care Professionals in Khammam, A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management, 3(7), 213-215.

Purnell, L. D., & Fenkl, E. A. (2019). People of Turkish Heritage. In Handbook for Culturally Competent Care (pp. 319-330). Springer, Cham.