2008). Developing cultural competency -- the ability to understand or even achieve the point-of-view of a different culture -- is an essential skill for doctors, and even more so as globalization continues to bring people of disparate backgrounds and belief into contact more and more every day. Proper training and exposure to the techniques of eliciting perspective-demonstrating comments has become increasingly standard practice in Western and non-Western medical schools, which can only lead to the better health and overall well-being of patients worldwide (Ho et al. 2008). Had these methods been employed in this scenario, the outcome for all concerned could have been very different.
When it comes to the parents' decisions and attitudes throughout the ordeal of their daughter Lia's illness, there are also some choices that could have been made better and more effective. The very perspective that created the term "cultural competency" is inherently Western, however, as have been research methods into the area of bridging cultural gaps in medicinal and social work practice (Schulze 2009). It is therefore highly improper to expect the Hmong immigrants, who still find the Western world and its belief systems largely alien and even aggressively oppositional to their own beliefs, to bear the larger burden of cross-cultural understanding here. The doctors involved saw the Lees' migration as an isolated occurrence within their larger biographies, and...
That is, the very alien-ness that the Lees felt as immigrants was a large source of the difficulties in this case, and the burden must lie with those working within the system that the Lees were subjected to -- i.e. The doctors.
There is not really a need to assign blame in this case, nor can blame truly be allocated in a manner that is fair and equitable. Both the Lees and Lia's doctors made decisions that adversely affected her health and well-being. when it comes to the need to work in tandem, the arrogance of Western medicine and the stubbornness of the Hmong culture clashed in an epic manner. Ultimately, however, it was up to the doctors in this situation to work with their patient's parents rather than acting as adversaries, as they did in many instances.
References
Fadiman, A. (1998). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Macmillan.
Ho, M.; Yao, G.; Lee, K.; Beach, M. & Green, A. (2008). "Cross-cultural medical education: Can patient-centered cultural competency training be effective in non-Western countries?" Medical Teacher 30(7), pp. 719-21.
Schulze, H. (2009). "From biographical research to cross-cultural competencies in counseling." Tiltai / Bridges 45(1),…
