This thread is a spinoff of the "patient won't shower" thread.
Well you know, you just can't make someone have your standards of hygiene if they don't want them.
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In lots of cultural settings smells and odors are percieved differently. I am sure you tried your hardest, don't feel a failure, what did you fail at?? Not getting someone into a shower??!!
I think within certain limits we need to be tolerant of cultural differences in hygiene practices (say, once a day vs. once a week), but at what point do you say, sorry, buddy, you got a PROBLEM? Is there any culture in which it's the norm to go weeks without bathing?
Ok I believe that people shouldnt really make assumptions that just because someone was belong to different culture it automatically makes them less clean.I know people from a lot of different cultures and a many takes showers couple times a day,always smell nice,are in general very clean people,so it would be wrong to make generalizations.
I remember being fascinated as a child when my mom would tell me stories about growing up on the farm where full baths were once a week on a Saturday night.
When you have no running water or electricity, a family of seven, and have to haul water from a stream, heat it on a wood stove and repeat the hauling and heating several times to fill the tub, you could see that the daily shower is easy in comparision.
For the rest of the week, the family would wash daily with a pitcher of water and a bowl and a bar of soap not unlike the way we wash our patients.
To be honest with you I can not believe my own eyes when I see CNA'S washing their assigned patients with tons I mean tons of soap,I want to scream out and say "Didnt they teach you in the CNA classes about proper way of cleaning up a patient....especially older population where the soap should be used with caution because it dries the skin.When I wash the patient sometimes I give the pt a teaching...I tell them dont use to much soap,it is not good for you.
This is a point I was going to bring up. What some people consider BO may not be due to a lack of hygiene. Certain foods really do seem to come out of your pores and affect your body's natural scent.
I remember a former neighbor of mine once shared a story from when he and his wife had first started dating. He is from Oklahoma, and is a very "meat and potatoes" kind of guy. She was born and raised in Japan and had recently emigrated. Apparently, he noticed a difference in her smell and finally had to ask , "Why do you always smell like fish?". Her reply was, " I don't know, why do you always smell like beef?". They shared a good laugh over that. Just goes to show you that all things are relative, I suppose....
ETA:
Also demonstrates that America is not the gold standard. People shouldn't assume that they are "normal" and foreigners have a "weird" smell. They may be thinking the same thing about you as you are about them.
I definitely agree with your last statement,like for an instance Japanees may think we make bull crap cars,french may think we over-feed ourselves and rest of the world may believe we make unrealistic movies....
"of course this is a new scientific discovery i came across just recently."
it isn't a "new scientific discovery" . ... the rumor of it has been around for decades and one of the things we should all try to do is squelch internet rumors. http://www.snopes.com is a great place to start.
and you have been around for at least 2 decades since you are over 20.
I definitely agree with your last statement,like for an instance Japanees may think we make bull crap cars,french may think we over-feed ourselves and rest of the world may believe we make unrealistic movies....
Actually, I was just referring to smell. People think those other things about Americans because we generally do make crap cars, overfeed ourselves [super Size Me, anyone?], and make some terribly unrealistic movies filled with deplorable violence [box office blockbusters].
Yes, showering and cleanliness is a cultural thing! I worked with a group of Danish athletes and you could smell them before you could see them! They did not shower everyday like Americans...I understand this is sometimes a European thing too!
I wont be able to eat a Daniash now without laughing.
I definitely agree with your last statement,like for an instance Japanees may think we make bull crap cars,french may think we over-feed ourselves and rest of the world may believe we make unrealistic movies....
Well, the Japanese may not buy our cars, and the French may not eat our food, but they do watch our unrealistic movies. :chuckle
inland18mempire
193 Posts
i've had some patients that stunk so bad (culture related). cultural or not, it's disgusting.