Raising Awareness in a Diverse Population for Better Outcomes

In an era of diversity in health care, the health practices that relate to pregnancy, childrearing, and medically related attitudes of women who identify themselves of Vietnamese origin are not at a level of sensitivity for health-care providers to deliver the best care to this population. Pre-mature, low-birth-weight infants can have serious respiratory consequences. Vietnamese women usually have their children at home along traditional patterns with no medical attendees.

Medical practices are integrally linked to cultural traditions and, thus, health-care providers need to be made aware of the particular beliefs and practices of Asian-Vietnamese woman in order to provide the appropriate level of care that preserves their cultural value and identity and leads to increased survival of both mother and infant.We need awareness, sensitivity, and an understanding of these issues as a precursor to serve this community. The development of a crosscultural competence allows practitioners to feel confident in issues of nonverbal communication (facial expression, eye movement, and body posture), physical spacing, and communication (translation expressions vs actual words) that one can handle a more diverse set of health-care beliefs and behaviors. An individual can maintain his or her cultural identity but must adapt within the larger dominant community. Just as one would want to be sensitive (in a multicultural sense), a program needs to reflect on a leadership style (clinical alternatives to care) and the qualities one needs to focus on in the way we can deal with crisis (acute care emergencies) management and still maintain particular beliefs.

Alan Roth, MS, MBA, RRT
Steering Committee Member