Culture and the Clinical Encounter: An Intercultural Sensitizer for the Health Professions [Paperback]

Rena C. Gropper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 1877864439 | ISBN-13: 978-1877864438 | Edition: 1

How can health professionals best serve their multicultural patients? What are the best ways to communicate and avoid misunderstanding? In her book Culture and the Clinical Encounter: An Intercultural Sensitizer for the Health Professions, Dr. Rena Gropper addresses these questions through a series of forty-four case studies, in which communication between a health professional and a patient breaks down because of a lack of knowledge about cultural differences. Dr. Gropper asks the reader to assess each situation, providing four possible explanations from which to choose.Along with the correct interpretation of each interaction, Dr. Gropper also provides accompanying discussions in order to further explore the significance of each encounter and how it would best be resolved. Culture and the Clinical Encounter is valuable practice for health professionals looking to improve their relationships with clients and patients from culturally diverse backgrounds. Contents Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 The Critical Incidents 3 Explanations 4 Discussion Epilogue References Index of Cultures

Editorial Reviews

Review

Culture And The Clinical Encounter: An Intercultural Sensitizer For The Health Professions provides a much needed opportunity for health care providers and non-specialist general readers to discover through real-life incidents the impact of cultural differences in the clinical encounter and the potential consequences of misunderstanding and miscommunication. For each incident the reader must choose the best of four possible explanations. The reader gains the skills and motivation to be alert to possible intercultural misperceptions or conflicts and their possible outcomes. 23 cultures represented are African American, Asian American, Dominican, Filipino, Haitian, Latino American, Mexican, Native American, Rom (Gypsy) and Vietnamese. Culture And The Clinical Encounter teaches the reader to think creatively and to ask appropriate, clarifying questions. Highly recommended! -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Professor Rena Gropper is one of the founders of the field of medical anthropology and has written extensively on the subject. She received her doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University and is professor emerita at Hunter College, CUNY.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 1 edition (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877864439
• ISBN-13: 978-1877864438
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #254,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Doctor-Patient Relations

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Offers intercultural trainers one more solid learning tool., June 16, 1998

By 

Dr. George F. Simons ([e-mail]) (Kerk Avezaath, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culture and the Clinical Encounter: An Intercultural Sensitizer for the Health Professions (Paperback)

Rena Gropper has selected a proven tool, the cultural assimilator for addressing critical incidents faced by healthcare professionals in increasingly diverse patient/caregiver relationships. In Section One, the Introduction, she explains her choice of this method and rebaptizes it "intercultural sensitizer." Rightly so, as it's purpose is less to encourage assimilation, than to alert clinicians to the dynamics of difference in healthcare encounters.

Section Two contains 43 (my count -- it would have helped to number them) critical incidents that involve largely Asian, Latin, Native American, African American, Rom Gypsy and Muslim patients and professionals. There are representative questions from other cultures as well. Section Three gives the user feedback on his or her choices for each situation. Finally, Section Four revisits cultural behaviors briefly but coherently by topic and ties them into a general perspective.

Until too recently cultural information about patient-caregiver interactions was buried in medical monographs and professional journals, at best handed on by cognoscenti to their interns and associates. Diversity programs have been largely aimed at workplace relationships, not diverse patient needs.

Journalist Lynn Payer popularized the cultural side of medicine in 1988 in her informative and entertaining, Medicine and Culture. Starting in the early 1990's Suzanne Salimbene's series on What Language Does Your Patient Hurt In? signaled a healthy trend to providing practical cross-cultural training for caregivers. Her more recent Multicultural HealthCare Calendar and HealthCare DIVERSOPHY training game show the field beginning to mature. Rena Gropper's Culture and the Clinical Encounter offers educators and trainers one more solid learning technology.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More In-Depth Please!, May 20, 2002

By 

"johansyd" (Dover, Delaware United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Culture and the Clinical Encounter: An Intercultural Sensitizer for the Health Professions (Paperback)

I found the book very shallow and typical. The book barely scratches the surface of this complex subject. Definately NOT worth the money.