Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people

Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people

Overview of the article

The Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people share common cultural values and communication style that causes a lot of misunderstanding among Western health care professionals. Despite the fact that the people of the Middle East differ ethically, they share common behaviors and values, which are attitudes towards health and illness, the importance of family and affiliation and interaction style. According to Donnelly et al. (2016), the problems that arise among the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people when providing health care include difficulty in obtaining adequate information. Besides, there are conflicting beliefs concerning the issues of planning for the future, the demanding behaviors that are caused by the patient’s family. Also, the difference in the patterns in which the bad news and the death of a patient are communicated to the family members.

The health care providers need to understand and have competencies to handle the different cultural practices,which will help in improving the provision of health care services. Culturally competent health care professional helps in reducing the gap and health care disparities associated with a difference in culture and health-seeking behaviors of the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people (Ben‐Arye et al., 2016). In case a health care provider is not well, conversant with the culture and the language of Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people, the health care management must have cultural interpreters to help in reducing the intensity of some cultural issues in health care services delivery.

Among the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people, they believe that food and drinks play a vital role in their health and illness. Some of the Iranians use herbal tea to help in managing stomach upsets and nervous upsets. They eat only fresh food and mostly avoid frozen and canned food because they believe it helps in preventing diseases. The belief that inappropriate and inadequate food cause illness and, at times, weakness; therefore, they ensure they eat compatible foods. Health is associated with wealth and good luck, while the disease is associated with poverty and unfortunate luck.

Most health care providers have observed acceptance for illness and, at times, death among the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people. Among the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people,the encounters that the physicians face are all culturally influenced. Besides, the people of the Middle East do not practice preventive measures; therefore, there is a high use of medications (Logan et al., 2017). The Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people always fear to be admitted in the hospitals because they fear and consider hospitals as places of misfortune where people go to die.

Impact on nursing practice

The health practices among the Arab, Iranian, and Baltic people impact my nursing practice in that I have to be culturally competent to be able to work efficiently and effectively when delivering health care services. Besides, people believe in eating balanced diet foods because it ensures health and wellness. According to Zakaria et al. (2019), it essential to learn the common types of food they use to be able to advise them accordingly, thus preventing the occurrence of lifestyle diseases. The people of the Middle East prefer curative measures than preventive measures. It is important as a nurse to find means of educating different communities on the importance of preventive measures such as physical activity, dietary modification, weight management, and immunization of both children and adults to prevent the occurrence of both lifestyle disease and infectious diseases.

References

Donnelly, T. T., Al Suwaidi, J. M., Al-Qahtani, A., Asaad, N., Fung, T. S., Singh, R., & Qader, N. A. (2016). Association between socioeconomic factors and depression among cardiovascular patients living in rich resourced Middle Eastern Country. International journal of cardiology, 203, 819-821.

Ben‐Arye, E., Samuels, N., Goldstein, L. H., Mutafoglu, K., Omran, S., Schiff, E., … & Turker, I. (2016). Potential risks associated with traditional herbal medicine use in cancer care: A study of Middle Eastern oncology health care professionals. Cancer, 122(4), 598-610.

Logan, S., Rouen, D., Wagner, R., Steel, Z., & Hunt, C. (2017). Mental health service use and ethnicity: An analysis of service use and time to access treatment by South East Asian‐, Middle Eastern‐, and Australian‐born patients within Sydney, Australia. Australian Journal of Psychology, 69(1), 12-19.

Zakaria, A., Osman, M., Dabboussi, F., Rafei, R., Mallat, H., Papon, N., … & Hamze, M. (2019). Recent trends in the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and mechanisms of resistance in clinical Aspergillus species: A general review with a special focus on the Middle Eastern and North African region. Journal of infection and public health.

Link 1: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=nrs