Culture Competency Term Paper

Cultural differences seem to play an extremely important role in almost all domains we are currently faced with nowadays. The global world implies not only intercultural relations in economics and trade issues, but also in areas such as education, social sciences, medicine and health.

If we are referring to the last two domains, it is often the case that a clinician is treating a patient whose religious and personal beliefs don't allow treatments that would otherwise be considered normal. We will not refer to extreme cases, such as sects where operations or blood transfusions are not allowed, but we will consider an example that may often occur in practice: the encounter between a clinician and a Muslim patient, with all the cultural differences problems that may arise.

For a Muslim patient, we first need to refer to the fourth ring, a ring which is defined, according to Purnell, as "biopsychosociocultural human being who is constantly adapting"

. The fourth ring in the Muslim religion comes in close connection with the 13 wedges that refer to cultural domains and related concepts. For a Muslim believer, all traditions and cultural heritage, not to mention laws or habits, come from the Koran, the Muslim holy book. All decisions made by a Muslim will first of all refer to what the Koran says.

In this sense, if we focus on health-care practices, one of Purnell's 12 wedges, a clinician will need to refer to what the practices are in Muslim culture and religion. One of the pointers, for example, is the fact that Muslims don't eat pork and that any food regime that the clinician might be needed to apply will leave out any pork protein.

Again following health-practices from Purnell's model, we come to self-medication and its role when dealing wit a Muslim patient. The Muslim patient is not necessarily obtuse to the developments of the modern world, but it is often the case that he believes it is best to rely on medication, rituals, potions (not in the magic sense, but rather traditionally) that have been passed along in Islamic tradition for hundreds of years. Again, we need to point out that the mystical and spiritual component is often primordial for a Muslim. His acceptance of Allah is equivalent with the acceptance that Allah has a yes/no decision over his life.

It is probably often the case that a clinician is likely to face a certain pessimism and fatalism in a Muslim patient, an unwillingness to fight with scientific methods against what is considered to be Allah's will. In this cases, the clinician's psychology and his ability to impose a medical decision for a Muslim patient is…