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Cultural considerations in health care
Cultural considerations in healthcare
Cultural considerations in health care
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The aim of health care in Finland is to maintain and improve people's health, wellbeing, work and functional capacity and social security, as well as to reduce health inequalities. The system is based on preventive health care and well-run, comprehensive health services. The MSAH (The Ministry of social affairs and health) is responsible for social and health policy and preparing associated legislation. (MSAH, 2013 ) The Finnish health care system has gone through big changes since the Second World War and the whole publicly organized systen has been a success story. Network of maternity and child health clinics were established in te 1940`s and soon after that, a female life expectancy increased almost nine years. (Sitra, 2009.) An excellent way to get pregnant woman to maternity clinics were “maternity boxes”, a great Finnish innovation. Maternity boxes got lots of publicity also abroad, when BBC published news with the title “Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes?” According to reporter Lee, "the box provided mothers with what they needed to look after their baby, but it also helped steer pregnant women into the arms of the doctors and nurses of Finland's nascent welfare state. In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and infant mortality was high - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades that followed." I am sure, that big thanks of that belong to maternity boxes. Mika Gissler, a professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, says, that there exists many reasons for this: expite the maternity boxes, but also national health insurance system, and the central hospital network. (Lee, H. 2013.) Health services consists of two parts: Primary health care and s... ... middle of paper ... ...ed to urinating under a full moon. Circumcisio is very common in Ethiopia. It is done to almost every man and 90 % of women. That is a huge healthrisk too. (Hodes, R. 1997.) Cultural issues can cause lots of harm also in European countries, although they are very different comparing to Ethiopias problems. There are living people from all over the world in UK. That is a big challenge for doctors and nurses: language and cultural backgrounds can be very weird. I think that Finland is slowly going to face a same problem: we have lot`s of immigrants, but very often we can`t speak their languages or do not know their cultural habits. In my opinion lifestyle in UK and Finland is quite same and is a significant risk for health: meanwhile when people in Ethiopia are starving, Finns and Brithis are eating junk food and drinking too much alcohol, which are making them sick.
The oppressive attitude towards woman interfered with women’s health care in the 19th century, and caused horrific medical issues to go untreated. When woman were sick with any kind of illness the doctors would basically classify the illness under one umbrella diagnosis “as a disease of the womb.”
... becoming malnourished. Medically related subjects are effected by cultural in all areas on the world for the wide cultural diversity.
William, W. D. (2004). Culture and the risk of disease. British Medical Bulletin, 69, 21-31. doi: 10.1093/bmb/ldh020
Monique was the midwife and practitioner of her small village of Nampossela. She helped mothers fight child malnutrition and illness, and did pregnancy consultations, including birth. She was one of a kind, extraordinary at that, and became so popular in her village and surrounding villages that she had women from six different villages coming to her, totaling up to a hundred and forty prenatal consultations a month and birthing more than ten babies (Page 199). Monique opened the clinic early each day, and would stay late into the evenings to care to her pregnant patients. The conditions of the birthing house were horrific. “The structure’s cement venner was chipped and failing, revealing mud brick. A corner of the corrugated tin roof gaped” (Page 6). Covering a majority of the birthing room “was an immense concrete block that served as the delivery table” (Page 6), and adjacent to that was a “plastic tub for the afterbirth, a medical kit in a tin box, and a frayed birth ledger” (Page 7). Giving birth in Mali in the twentieth century was light years away from the luxurious childbirth in the States. All Monique had was “simple tools, clean hands, and a sharp mind. If a woman needed an IV, or a Cesarean section, or a fetal monitor, it was not an option” (Page 89). Medication was not offered to ease the pain and induce labor, a
The health care industry is positioned for the global market place. It is expected to grow exponentially in health-related services for the elderly. China’s population of individuals over sixty years old is expected to grow to one third in the next twenty-five years. Though their culture view aging somewhat differently than in United States, they are interested in the attractive senior living options established here. Senior care encompasses private care facilities, home health care, products, drugs and medical equipment. As the largest health care market in the world American companies have made significant global inroads over the last two decades. These businesses are positioned to offer additional services directed at retirees, and children who will be responsible for their parents and potentially their grandparents as well.
Sorensen, J., & Abbott, E. (2004). The Maternity and Infancy Revolution. Maternal & Child Health Jounal, 8(3), 107-110. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14089739&site=ehost-live
Today in the United States of America, the race and culture that a person is raised in determines the quality of health care he or she will receive for a lifetime. Minority patients tend to receive a lower quality of health care as opposed to patients who are the same race as their doctor. Minorities reported to be less satisfied with visits to the doctor (Schnittker and Liang 811). This action puts minority patients’ health at risk and can cause them many consequences in the long run. Doctors should work on improving their relationship with minority patients by learning how to communicate verbally and nonverbally with them, educating themselves on how different cultures show symptoms to diseases, and entitling minorities to health insurance.
Denmark is a small high-income country with a high population density, is governed by a constitutional monarchy, has a central parliament and is administratively divided into regions, municipalities and has 2 dependencies (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). It has a national health service (funded by general taxation) and a decentralized healthcare system in which the individual regions run most services and the municipalities are responsible for some public health services (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). However, a process of (re) centralization (under the structural reform of 2007) has been taking place, which has lowered the number of regions from 14 to 5 and the municipalities from 275 to 98 (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012; Schäfer et al., 2010). The hospital structure is also undergoing reform, moving towards fewer, bigger and more specialized hospitals (Olejaz, Nielsen, Rudkjøbing, Okkels, Krasnik & Hernández-Quevedo, 2012). Greenland and the Faroe Islands are independent in health matters but follow the Danish Legislation (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009). The National Board of Health (NBH) (based in Copenhagen) is responsible for the legislation concerning dentistry in Denmark (Kravitz & Treasure, 2009; Schäfer et al., 2010).
Health inequalities in any country is an important issue. There are many reasons for inequalities in health, for example, gender and age, economic and social factors.
Marmot in his famous article titled Social Determinants of Health Inequalities firmly stated that actions targeted to improve healthcare access should not be focused only on healthcare system but rather on the social determinants of health. Marmot reiterated that health inequalities, disparities and social determinants of health are totally preventable through more inclusive wider social policies. He insists that inequalities of health between and within geographical areas can be reduced through positive actions.3 And such actions should be focused towards improving the social determinants of health in all areas to give everyone equal access to healthcare services.2-3 Explaining that lack of healthcare access are driven by SDOH, Marmot further argues that health cannot be improved by itself alone, but by enhancing those factors that determine health.
Also the essay will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as this can be an indicator if this approach is applied, whether it can address inequality and improve the health and well being of that individual or society. The essay will use the Dahlgren and Whitehead social determinants of health of need to exemplify the determinants of health showing how these determinants can influence the way health is viewed as holistic or merely an absence of disease. Lastly, the essay will analyse the evaluation with these approaches plus the importance of evaluation to present programs and future programs or activity.
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
In many parts of the world that are considered lower or middle-class countries, health disparities are cause of major concern that leads to unnecessary disease and possible death. Many variables affect how and why many citizens of lower and middle-class countries struggle to obtain adequate healthcare. One region of the world classified as a lower socio economic territory is Ethiopia. Many factors contribute to the lack of health care in Ethiopia such as access to care, high cost of care, and being uneducated, to name a few. One idea that hinders many citizens in Ethiopia to attain healthcare is the access to the healthcare system. This research project will entail the issue of access to the health care system; ways it is affecting the lives of those living in Ethiopia, and measures that can be taken to possibly increase the availability and attainment of healthcare.
To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to wellbeing. Health promotion goes beyond health care. It puts health on the agenda of policy makers in all sectors and at all levels. It directs policy makers to be aware of the health consequences of their decisions and accept their responsibilities for
Kenya is a developing country in East Africa region with a total land area of 582,646 km2. It gained independence in 1963 from British colonial rule. It is neighbor to Somalia and Sudan which have experienced political instability marred with civil strife but the country has remained relatively stable despite the effects of such on socio-economic status of the country. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2010), Kenya has 38.6 million people with a growth rate of 2.8% annually with a majority population living in rural areas (World Bank, 2010). Under its current constitution (promulgated in 2010), Kenya is headed by a president with a devolved county government system comprising of 47 counties. Its last concluded general elections in 2013 were peaceful compared to the conflicted 2007 that sparked violence in the country.