Culturally Competent Care Reflection#5(11-1-2011)

Today, we recorded our voicethread with ease. We both read the script and when necessary, used the magic pen to point things out. This process was very simple, we finished within 25 minutes. Our voicethread was then complete. The process of embedding objects into a blog/websites is very familiar to me. It is more simple to me than almost any other process online. I would be able to embed anything in the future without asking for help. GoogleDocs can be a very nice tool to get documents out to a group of people in a fast, simple process. You can upload documents from Microsoft Word and share them through your blog, or just keep them in your docs. When you go to share it, you must make sure it matches what you are going for. Such as if you want to make it public, you press share, and then click " make public." This is a very simple, yet easily forgetful step in sharing your document via googledocs.

Culturally Competent Care Reflection#4(10-28-2011)

Some information that we included in our presentation included many things about the Hawaiian culture. The most important thing of that information was the information about etiquette. To have good Etiquette in Hawaii, and to be respectful, you need to do a couple things. For one, when you are given a lei, do not take it off. Take it with gratitude, and wear it. Do not take it off in that person's presence either. Also, when you are driving, if there is a local behind you, you should pull over to the side of the road and allow them to pass you. This shows respect because they will go through the city faster than you, and you do not want a mad Hawaiian on your hands. This belongs in the presentation, because when going to Hawaii, or any other country for that matter, you must show the correct respect to the people of that country/state. In a medical setting, this information could be very useful. When you are providing health care to an individual of Hawaiian descent, you could give them a lei to make them feel welcome, and show them respect to allow them to feel like they can talk to you about anything. This is similar to that of which you are giving health care to an individual of your own culture, you still must make them feel welcome, but in many ways show respect as well. In my own mind I would do this for anyone in any situation.

Culturally Competent Care Reflection#3(10-25-2011)

My group and I selected the Hawaiian Culture to research for this project. We selected this because we both felt that the culture of Hawaiians was very interesting, as it always has been from the start of their existence. They are a beautiful people, and I would love to live among them because their culture is one like no other.I discovered that the stereotypical Aloha Shirts with flowers and buttons all over them, usually worn in movies, are actually real! They are actually very popular among Hawaiians. Also, I figured out that to start out with, the Hawaiian alphabet started out with only 12 letters! I could use the flowered shirts to my advantage in a medical setting. If I worked as a nurse, and i knew my patient was Hawaiian, there is many things I could do to make them feel like they are at home. The blankets I give them could be a flowery background. I could as well give them a lei to show my respect to them. I would like to learn more about how their language is structured. I know that the letters have begun to show similarities to the English language, but there are still differences. I would like to learn more about how their sentences are structured.

Culturally Competent Care Reflection#2 (10-18-2011)

We set up two website accounts today, both of which I already had accounts for. These sites were Blogger, sponsored by Google itself, and Voicethread. I already had a chance to check out both of these sites prior to class time. I will use these accounts for many things, as with the other accounts I have made through my H.S.O. class. Not just these two sites, but every site that I have made an account for will help me with presentations for other classes, turning in assignments, and much more. In Health Systems Orientation, I will obviously be using this blogger/Google account to write reflections on what I had done during that unit. Voicethread will help me put together presentations to address what needs to come across and do it quickly, efficiently, and neatly. Now that I have been introduced to these blog formats, I am closely considering using this site to put together an electronic senior portfolio, as opposed to a tangible one. It provides link spaces which I will integrate links in using googledocs, and such programs. I would be interested in learning about the Mexican culture, because I already know a small bit of information about it, and also because I am learning to speak the Spanish language, and I feel that if you learn to speak a language you should learn about its culture as well.

Culturally Competent Care Reflection#1 (10-18-2011)

In this unit, we’re going to be learning about Culturally Competent Care. I personally feel that Culturally Competent Care means providing the best possible care and service without any regard to culture, which contains anything from ethnicity to appearance, language, and diet. It doesn’t matter what the patient’s “culture” consists of, you still need to treat them with the same respect and care that you would a normal patient.

 We also learned about an implicit association, which is a direct thought about something, or a “stereotype”, without knowing anything about that certain person or object. An example would be if you think of a Jewish person, you’d think of someone wearing a yamaka. If you say picture an Asian, you automatically think of someone Asian eating rice.

There was a test to test your preference towards certain subjects or types of people, called the IAT’s. I took one to see my preference between Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. I got the result of a preference towards Barack Obama over Reagan, probably because I have really grown up under Obama, not because he caused me to, but because he was a familiar face while I was growing up.

As a class, we composed many definitions of culture into a mind map, and there is many things that culture could necessarily mean. We as a class came up with a way of life, societal based, a state of mind, and that its influenced by the way we were raised. There are different aspects of culture, also, which include diet, appearance, ethnicity, and language that influence what “culture” you belong to.

Being culturally competent is very important in a medical setting, because when an individual of a different ethnicity, or culture walks in with a condition, you’re obliged to help them no matter what you think of that. So, it is very important to be culturally competent with any culture, in order to provide the best possible care in any possible situation. No matter who it is, it could be a killer of Hispanic ethnicity, with a stab wound. No matter what you’d like to do to that person to get “revenge”, you are under the oath you took as a professional to help them. Cuulturally Competent care plays into this greatly.