Question

a patient, who is Indian, is in the hospital and is ordering what they want for lunch. The healthcare professional discussing their lunch order states "we have hamburgers and steak" and the patient replies "I don't eat meat". The healthcare professional says back "oh, I could not go without meat for meals at least twice a day". The healthcare provider then proceeds to ask the patient how could you possibly not eat beef? What about the healthcare workers' statements are projecting the wrong impression and how could they better communicate in this situation without projecting their preferences?

Answer 1

The statement from the healthcare professional is projecting a very bad impression about the medical field. As a healthcare professional we are educated and trained to effectively use Cultural competency in our health care system that is to provide quality care and meeting the expectations of patient's social, cultural and linguistic needs. It is very important aspect of our healthacare system where we pay our respect to a patient's beliefs, customs, values, language, and traditions. It helps in developing a sense of trust and respect between a healthacare provider and a patient and also improves the overall patient's outcome.

In the given case, we all know that most of the Indians are vegetarion and do not eat meat. In fact, cows are said be a holy animal in their culture and they are even worshiped. So, passing such a statement is a big disrespect for their religion and this behaviour of the professional is a matter of huge condemn and unappropriate cultural competency in our healthcare system.

In this situation, the healthcare provider should have simply asked about what the patient would like to have for the lunch without projecting their own preferences. Even if they had some question about their culture, they could have simply asked them about their beliefs and values and the reason behind being a vegetarion with proper respect and patient's comfort in discussing such things.