Health traditions vary in different cultural settings. The differences are conditioned by the geographical, religious, and socio-political peculiarities in each region of the world. The Japanese health traditions differ from the Latino health traditions as well as the European health traditions vary from the country to country of the European Union. Three families were interviewed to determine the potential differences in health traditions.
Considering the peculiarities of health traditions in different cultures, the paper is aimed at exploring common health traditions for the interviewed families, comparing the differences between them, evaluating the ways families follow the health traditions they have, and assessing the health maintenance, protection, and restoration in regards to these practices.
Common Health Traditions
Cultural traditions influence health beliefs and traditions in different cultures. Health beliefs and traditions depend on the technical and social sophistication of society as well as on the peculiarities of a local religion. Thus, the Asian/Pacific cultures promote respect to the older generations and the harmonic development of a person. The well-known modesty and low temper of the Japanese people are the results of the centuries of the development following the principles of harmony and respect (Dayer-Berenson, 2013).
Latinos, on the contrary, are usually very religious, and they tend to find solutions to their problems, including health-related issues, in prayers and the church. The attitude towards medicine providers is not very positive, so counselling, for example, can be rather complicated. Latinos rely on the traditional medicine too, so it can cause additional issues in the case of emergency when some medical condition requires immediate professional help (Juckett, 2013).
Europeans are used to the advanced medicine and quality health care services. On the other hand, such a situation is common for the Western European countries. People from the Eastern European countries, which were the part of the Soviet Union in the past, treat the US medicine with certain mistrust and caution (White, Duncan, & Baumle, 2010). The reason is in the decades of low-quality attitude and medical practices in the socialistic countries with free medicine services.
Health Traditions in Families
Three families that were interviewed represented three different cultural settings. The Heritage Assessment Tool was used to collect the necessary data (Spector, 2000). The first interviewed person was a Latino man who had lived in Mexico during the first five years of his life, after which his family managed to move to the USA. Mr. Santos considers himself as Mexican because his parents were born in Mexico. However, his grandparents were born in Europe (Spain, Italy, and Germany).
He is a religious man as well as his wife and children. Mr. Santos does not trust medical facilities because he believes that they make people spend money for nothing, providing only little help. It is rather common for the cultural setting of Latinos where religion is the answer to many issues.
The second interviewed person was the representative of the Japanese family that has lived in the USA for 20 years already. Mr. Jameson immigrated to the country when he was 10. His entire family was born in Japan, so there are strong traditions in it. However, it appeared that Mr. Jameson is not very religious (if religious at all), and he believes in modern medicine that can be provided in the USA.
On the other hand, he told me about his family member who followed the Japanese traditions strongly, preferring harmony and avoidance of disturbance as well as conflicts in their daily lives to support their health. It should be noted that it works rather well because his father and mother as well as grandparents, still have very good health.
Finally, the third interviewed person was the representative of the American family that has lived in the USA for 30 years already but strongly respects the traditions of the predecessors from Europe. Mrs. Krochak immigrated to the USA when she was one year of age.
Her parents are from Europe, and they have French, British, Polish, and Ukrainian blood. Parents grew under the influence of Eastern European originated relatives, so their attitude towards medicine has transferred to Mrs. Krochak too. She is a rather closed person, and she does not like to talk about her health with anybody, even doctors. Mrs. Krochak was raised hearing that it was a shame to share problems with other people. It makes the process of treatment of such people rather complicated.
Health Maintenance, Protection, and Restoration
The results of the interviews showed that each cultural group requires a specialized approach to health maintenance, protection, and restoration. The first family would require a Latino doctor who would consult the family members regarding the problems they have with health by using language understandable to each family member. Latino immigrants have weight issues and the higher risk of diabetes mellitus, so the protection of their health from these particular problems must be in the medical plan of the family physician. Restoration of health would be more effective in the home setting as the heritage of the Hispanic culture presupposes such care (Juckett, 2013).
The second family would require very respectful attitude to receive the same attitude in return. The Japanese people perceive medical assistance well, but it is necessary to gain their trust first to make the treatment plan effective. They are very pleasant to everyone, but they will not listen people they do not trust (Dayer-Berenson, 2013). Finally, the case of the Eastern European family requires a very detailed plan that should consider the opportunity for the family to share their problems with the physician using indirect communication first (White, Duncan, & Baumle, 2010). It can help to build relationships strong enough to consult these people directly. It can be said that every cultural group requires the special approach from a physician or a nurse to provide the most effective treatment.
Conclusion
Summing, the paper has explored common health traditions for the interviewed families, compared the differences between them, evaluated the ways families follow the health traditions they have, and assessed the health maintenance, protection, and restoration in regards to these practices. The cultural heritage influences the healthcare practices adopted in different cultural groups, so it is highly important to consider these unusualnesses while creating healthcare plans.
References
Dayer-Berenson, L. (2013). Cultural competencies for nurses. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Juckett, G. (2013). Caring for Latino patients. American Family Physician, 87(1), 48-54.
Spector, R. E. (2000). CulturalCare: Guide to heritage assessment and health traditions (5th ed.). Ney York, NY: Pearson Education/PH College.
White, L., Duncan, G., & Baumle, W. (2010). Foundations of basic nursing. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.