Cultural Preferences and End-of-Life Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cultural Preferences and End-of-Life Care - Essay ExampleThis paper studies Kagawa-Singer and Blackhalls (2001) article and directs its attention to the Chinese-American ethnic group, outlining roughly of the critical issues that affect the medical process based on the patient, family and the physician while monitoring the cultural beliefs, practices and values of the patient so as to pick up maximum satisfaction at the end of life. The paper also looks into the various challenges faced by professionals in palliative care with respect to cultural beliefs and the implications of these challenges to the professionals.On January 12, 2001, a perspective editor interviewed a 38-year old Chinese woman, Ms Z, who took care of her ailing mother and father with help from her elder sister (Kagawa-Singer and Blackhall, 2001). In December 1994, her mother was diagnosed with stage IIIB adenocarcinoma of the lung and underwent chemotherapies. She received constant treatment but succumbed to her end of life in January, 1996. To add to the ill-fated departure of her mother, Ms Zs dad was diagnosed with Parkinson during the early 90s, and died in 1997 after numerous medications had been administered (Kagawa-Singer and Blackhall, 2001). According to Ms Z, the topic of her mothers condition was never brocaded by any family member. In addition, her father never discussed his condition even after they had full information from the doctor (Kagawa-Singer and Blackhall, 2001). From the interview, a number of issues were of notable stir in the Chinese culture and they are addressed belowa) Informed consent across many cultures, people do not appreciate verbalise the truth about diagnosis of certain diseases such as cancer, although it is part of U.S. health care. According to Ms Z, her mothers diagnosis was given in a statistical book for her to read, and they never discussed that topic again. This is