The United States is becoming more racially, culturally, ethnically and culturally diverse. This growth in diversity is not occurring as quickly in our population of health care professionals, and the lack of parallel growth often results in the provision of culturally inconsistent care. Because of this lack of consistent culturally competent care, nurses and other health care providers need education to negotiate across cultural divides that may occur during our interactions with a patient whose cultural background is different from our own.
To aid in our understanding of the importance of cultural diversity, your synthesis assignment is to read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Ms. Fadiman through her book weaves this personal tragedy, a probing medical investigation, and a fascinating look at the Hmong history and culture into an extraordinarily insightful piece of literature.
After reading this book you will develop a 4-5 page report (not including your title page and reference page) on your thoughts and impressions. See instructions below.
Based on your reading of the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, you will play the role of an advocate and write an extended appeal (maximum five pages, double-spaced) for a way to resolve the bridge between the two cultures and ethnomedical systems, and to find some approach that will result in better health outcomes. You have two choices: Write the appeal as an advocate for the Hmong community, or as an advocate for the hospital that treated Lia (the Hmong child). In either case, your appeal must include the following components (total – 50 points):
Description of both ethnomedical systems (25points): For either option, your appeal must incorporate a description of the ethnomedical system of the party for whom you are an advocate, as well as for the other party.
A proposed approach to improve health outcomes (25 points): Assuming that both sides want better health outcomes, propose an approach or program to achieve that goal from your specific advocacy perspective.
If you do have any citations in the text (which you should for any assertions of fact or opinions that are not yours), make sure you include references at the end of the paper. Format the citations and references in APA style.
