Book Club Discussion Summary

Post a summary of the book club discussion forums that you participate in. This must be a summary of the discussions, not a summary of the book. Review for specific themes and attitudes, attitude changes, AHA statements.

Your summary should be concise - 150-200 words.

The book club discussion forums that I participated varied from simple comments and answers to in depth answers and comments. A major trend I noticed about my posts was that the majority part of my posts revolved around the situation that Henrietta signed a consent form allowing all necessary medical procedure to be done, but wasn’t well aware of what exactly it was that she signed. Another major trend was that my posts revolved around the point of Henrietta’s cells being harvested without her consent and her knowledge. 

These two points by far really took the majority of my posts because I felt that they were the highest/most important violations of this book. 

The other posts just consisted of answering questions in regards to patient awareness of procedures to genetic researching to simply commenting a fellow classmate’s forum. Overall I felt that the book club experience is very different and helpful because not only do I get to put my two cents up, other people are able to do so and in returns we all end up answering questions and posting about what we think and believe in.

Benefits of Diversity Resources

Diversity resources are helpful because they help inform the profession of cultural differences. Resources are great ways to understand more about their culture and what is acceptable and what it not. As stated in “The Amish” article, via the University of Northern Iowa, “The Amish are usually not native speakers of English, but rather speak an old form of high German.” This goes to say that with research a health profession will know that some Amish would need a German translator when seeking medical help. Not to mention, the Amish do not seek medical attention unless seriously needed. This goes to say that doing research about one’s patient’s ethnical background would be most helpful when trying to understand one’s patient.

 Many assume and judge based on norms that are placed on different ethnicities. These norms can be generalized among the ethnicities or specific to only a certain ethnicity. I, for one, used to think that since I know the norms of this specific ethnic group, I know enough to know how they think and function and what they’d do. But that’s not the way to go and never the mindset to have. So far I have broken from that “biased” mindset, instead of being biased and basing everything on what little information I know, I open my eyes and do more research if possible.

Specifically speaking, while reading the resource about Gypsy Americans, when I got to the part where it was talking about the Rom and Romnichals, I would have gotten confused had I not read further on. Due to similarities of the two names, I would have assumed that Rom would be a shortened version of Romnichals. I didn’t think that Rom and Romnichals are two different Gypsy groups. “Many of the Rom came to the New World from Russia or Eastern or Central Europe; the Romnichals came from Great Britain…they also are divided by the cultural differences and prejudices between Great Britain and Eastern Europe.”(Heimlich) This goes to say that getting to know more and opening one’s mindset really helps with getting to know more about different ethnicities. Also when it comes to health issues, Gypsies prefer to perform ritual purifications than seek western medical assistance. As Sutherland stated in the article, “some Gypsy families turn to doctors, either in private practices or at clinics”(Heimlich) when Gypsies do turn to Western medicine, they seek in privacy and somewhat secrecy as they do not want others to know of their visits. This goes to say that Gypsies will seek Western medicine only when necessarily needed.

It’s interesting what one learns when they do even the simplest research of ethnic backgrounds. From reading two resources, I know that I am more knowledgeable than I was a couple hours ago. I know that there are definite preferences when it comes to the Amish and the Gypsies. This diversity resource reading helps and it very beneficial to a professional, especially someone who consistently has face-to-face communication with the patient. At the end of it all, it’s beneficial to know the differences and understand that what may be acceptable in American society is different in another ethnic's society.

Interpersonal Awareness

A requirement for all health care professions is the ability to be culturally competent. This means that despite a person’s background and what language they speak, one must be able to keep an open mind about the differences that sets as a barrier between professional and patient. Hence to ensure that a patient is treated well despite the differences the CLAS standard exists mainly for that.

CLAS standards exist to ensure that patients receives the best and most fair care while they are being treated in a professional’s presence. This means that despite a patient’s background, ethnicity, or difference shouldn’t matter and that what really matters is that they are being treated fairly and well as they are the patients. CLAS standards also exist to help prevent any health care disparities.

The cultural competence requirements for radiologic technology are as followed:  

-Recognizing, respecting and understanding a patient’s belief, needs, and values.

-Strongly encourage the patient to participate in the decision making of their treatment as it is their body and their right to decide what they prefer and want to do.

-Utilizing resources available when it comes to communications, such as an interpreter if needed or simplifying medical terms so patient understands what is going on

On the other hand, the similar CLAS standards are as followed:

-Principal standard:  Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs. 

-Communication and Language Assistance: Provide easy-to-understand print and multimedia materials and signage in the languages commonly used by the populations in the service area. Offer language assistance to individuals who have limited English proficiency and/or other communication needs, at no cost to them, to facilitate timely access to all health care and services.  

As the list above contains only a couple of the requirements to get a clear view of the difference between the two. The ultimate goal is to have a health care system where a patient is treated well and fairly without prejudice in regards to where they come from, their beliefs, their skin color and how different they are.

All in all, personally, I believe that despite what profession or occupation whether it’s from the health care profession to the business occupation all patients/clients should be treated with the utmost fairness and best care available despite their background. At the end of the day, a person is not defined by being the same as everyone but the differences that makes them unique and who they are.