The concept of culture can be defined as an orchestrated integration of unconsciously learned behavior patterns that are characteristic of a group of people. Many varying constituents compose a particular culture. This causes many different cultures to deviate from one another greatly. Such components as ethnicity, life experiences, values, beliefs, religion, time orientations and socializations are all examples of these aspects. (Warner and Mochel, p.4)Because of the great differences many cultures exhibit between one another, within situations where cross-cultural interactions take place, many discrepancies, disagreements, and difficulties arise. These situations are becoming increasingly evident in the United States today due to the cultural diversity brought upon by immigrants and refugees new to this country. One prominent example of an intercultural disharmony is apparent in the situation of health care systems. Here at the Minneapolis Health Center, we often see the problems faced by the health care staff when it comes to administering western bio-medicinal procedures to patients within the large Southeast Asian Hmong community.Western Biomedicine, the very governing system here at the Minneapolis Health Center, can be viewed as a cultural system. It is the primary viewpoint of health care in America today. “Values of clinical reality assume that biologic concerns are more basic, real, clinically significant and interesting than psychological and sociocultural issues”. (Warner and Mochel, p.5-6) This also carries with it a highly ethnocentric viewpoint that there are no other effective alternate forms of healing besides that offered by western biomedicine. The Hmong community’s culture is one in which such an alternate form of healing is taken to. The belief’s that shape their ideas concerning illness, health, causation of ailments, diagnostic methods, and plans of treatment drastically counter those o...
