Cultural Expectations and Challenges HCS 321 Discussion

Read Chapter 5 in Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Ayonrinde article.  Cassidy (2011) considers cultural relativity and cultural constructs to provide an overview of the potential interactions that can occur when patients seek health care. Ayonrinde discusses cultural sensitivity in therapeutic applications. Using the cultural criteria below, create a patient profile using at least four of these characteristics.  

• Gender
• Age (18 to 35, 36 to 55, 56 to 70, 70+)
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Nation/place of origin
• Sexual orientation
• Religion

For example, your patient may be a 22-year-old woman who is a practicing Hindu from India.  Consider the patient’s relationship to his or her care provider in the United States based on your chosen profile.  Determine the specific needs and expectations the patient would have from the provider. Include the potential challenges the patient may face when visiting a provider of a different cultural group as well as one who represents the biomedical model of health care provision. Also include a substantive discussion on how differing concepts of sickness, disease, and imbalance can thwart the therapeutic encounter.  Finally, include a discussion on what your chosen cultural group would expect in terms of the practitioner’s approach to health and disease.    

Your post must address all five topics (identifying the individual, addressing his or her needs, expectations, and challenges, as well as the practitioner’s approach to health and disease) in detail.  Support your position with at least one scholarly or peer-reviewed source.