Nursing Implications for Treating "Kanser" in Filipino Patients

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

As the ethnic face of America changes, so too does the population seen by palliative care nurses. The holistic care provided by nurses demands knowledge of the cultural beliefs and traditions of individual patients. This article provides a description of nursing implications for the palliative care of Filipino clients and presents pertinent cultural implications for three issues: managing the diagnosis, pain and death, and dying.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/519763?src=mp

Neat article on cultural differences. Free registration as always required for Medscape articles. Do our Filipino nurses have anything to add to it?

[nrswnabee]

i didn't get to read the entire article however, i felt it was comforting that nursing practices DO involve accounting for cultural beliefs. i found the author to be quite accurate in her observations of prevailing filipino traits---non-confrontational, pain-enduring, unquestioning to authority figures. as a consequence, the article encourages nurses providing palliative care to filipino patients to be a little more attentive and patient.

i think, these traits mentioned are shared by other ethnicities in the same manner there are filipinos just who don't fit the depicted stereotype. whether they have become "westernized" or whatever, some filipinos could be vocal, suspicious and even annoying. the 1-chair policy in hospital rooms may even work as a convenient excuse to having less visitors, thus less people witnessing their pain. it isn't that that they don't wish to "lose face" but simply they would like to shield their family from the further heartbreak of seeing them suffer.

another note--i appreciate the sensitivity of the author to what has gradually become a reality. the tables have turned from filipinos as the care-providers to becoming the care-receivers.