CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISES
1. Consider the beliefs of at least three cultures regarding illness and health. How do they compare with your personal beliefs?
2. Your nursing instructor uses the word “Mexican” in a sentence when describing a client. Would the use of a word such as Mexican, Filipino, Polish, Arab, Russian, or Black or African American be discriminative? What is the difference between descriptive and discriminative?
3. Quickly write your initial and immediate reactions to each of the following situations. Do not change or amend your initial answer after writing it. After you have responded to all the situations, evaluate and discuss your responses in terms of the transcultural nursing concepts presented in this chapter. How might any of the following situations be modified to be more comfortable for the client, you, and the healthcare staff?
• A Native American man wants to burn herbs in his room and wants to see a healer from his tribe while in the facility.
• A lesbian is at your clinic for artificial insemination, accompanied by her female partner.
• A Jehovah’s Witness is seriously hemorrhaging and refuses to have a blood transfusion.
• A man is accused of child abuse after performing religious healing rites that left bruises on his child; the father is in the hospital for mental health evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
• An Amish woman refuses to take off her customary clothing and put on a hospital gown before a diagnostic test.
• A family from Somalia refuses to leave their child alone in the hospital
