Course Descriptions

Exploring The Cross-Cultural Clinician-Patient
Encounter Through Literature
1999-current

Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D.
3 hour session taught to approximately 10 post-masters nursing students as part of a year-long certificate program training family nurse practitioners sponsored by the UCI Department of Family Medicine

Learning Objectives
In this session, students will achieve the following:

  1. Develop greater empathy for patients in cross-cultural encounters
  2. Learn how point of view, tone of voice, and use of language can express different perspectives and emotional responses
  3. Identify a range of emotions evoked in clinicians in difficult cross-cultural interactions
  4. Develop problem-solving strategies for dealing with a range of difficult cross-cultural encounters

Teaching Points

Fathering Bharati Mukherjee

  1. Family dynamics; how these are affected by cross-cultural dimensions; how Jason is triangulated between daughter and wife
  2. Different views of the cross-cultural "other"; how Jason views Eng; how Sharon sees her; and how Dr. Kearns sees her
  3. Relationship of war/trauma on immigrant populations: effect of Vietnam war on Eng; how she understands her current world
  4. Three-way culture clash: between Eng, Sharon and Dr. Kearns, and Jason as mediator
  5. Common ground between apparent "others": commonalities between Sharon and Eng
  6. Significance of Jason's choice: supports daughter against his own culture

The Appointment L.J. Schneiderman

  1. Family relations in the Latino culture
  2. Differing views of American medicine (Modesta, Serafina)
  3. Modesta's view of Anglo culture
  4. Clinic's view of Latino patients
  5. Cross-cultural insensitivities and misunderstandings

Jamal Rafael Campo

  1. Feelings toward child; toward mother
  2. Contrast of initial views of mother with views at end of poem
  3. Attitude and judgment of speaker

What Is Lost Peter Pereira

  1. Traumas of refugee immigrant population - theme of overwhelming, incomprehensible loss
  2. Communication difficulties
  3. Attitude of physician to patient; of patient to physician
  4. Physician's knowledge of his patient
  5. What constitutes healing - pills vs. reconnecting with culture

Maria Rafael Campo

  1. Frustrations with patient (communication, poor prenatal care, poor historian, single; undocumented status)
  2. Attitude of physician toward patient

H.I. Vato Alberto Antonio Araiza

  1. Discordancy between the narrator's reality and the clinic and safe sex video
  2. View of doctor as a witch, voodoo magician, white man, patronising, antiseptic, artificial
  3. Coping with the clinic setting -giving up being himself
  4. Safety and sanctuary in the culture of gay, mestizo, Buddhist home-boy in the gang of HIV, symbolized by his home

Medicine Stone Jack Coulehan

  1. Contrast between Navajo healing ceremony and Western medicine
  2. Different views of suffering in the two cultures
  3. Different views of the stone, and its different symbolism in each culture
  4. Navigating between two cultures - keeping the stone

Getting Back To Barra Iris Litt

  1. Contrast between views of death in traditional Latin American village and U.S.

Strong Horse Tea Alice Walker

  1. Conflict between folk and "doctor" medicine
  2. The role that racism, poverty play in this conflict
  3. Relationships viewed through the prism of race: Rannie and mailman; Rannie and Sarah
  4. Cross-cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications

 



Any Problems, Comments, Or Suggestions?
Email Dr. Johanna Shapiro (jfshapir@uci.edu)
Copyright © 2000-2002, UCI College Of Medicine, Medical Education Dept.
University Of California, Irvine