Lia's Illness In The Hmong Culture

Hmong see a world where everything is connected. They believe that nothing occurs in isolation. Their body, mind and spirit are all interconnected. They also view illness in this holistic approach. Hmong culture saw Lia as a type of “anointed one” and her epilepsy as a blessing rather than a weakness. In the Lees eyes, the concern was the western medicine, not Lia’s illness (Fadiman 1998). In the Hmong culture, people born with epilepsy are believed to be destined to a life as a shaman (Fadiman 1998). They call it “qaug dab peg,” or “the spirit catches you and you fall down.” People in the westernized medical profession did not understand the concept of spirits, what they had to do with treating illness and the importance of epilepsy for

She was not effective because she did everything perfect but in her day and age, she communicated better than almost everyone else involved in Lia’s case. Jeanine was a case worker for the CPS, Child Protective Services. Jeanine was the only one who thought to ask how the Lees felt about how the doctors were treating Lia and their culture. In my opinion this is such a big deal because it shows she had better patient centered care than most. Because of this openness to communication and genuine interest in their answers, she explained to the hospital how the Lees, and the Hmong culture, felt about Lia’s epilepsy and why they were running into to so many conflicts with the Hmong culture. Jeanine’s open approach allowed her to see what the barriers were between the Lees and the medical profession. She made a point to help educate Foua and Naokao. I feel like this is especially important especially to me because I have seen to many CPS case workers working against parents rather than with them. When I was in foster care I had lots of case workers, some good and some bad. Luckily my last one was wonderful and resembled Jeanine and sadly my biological parents were not near as great of parents that Foua and Naokao were, so parental termination was the only answer but I was placed in a loving and caring home. Jeanine was one of the only people who adamantly fought for the rights of the Hmong. Jeanine did a great job at

I think it takes work for everyone to be able to be great in an intercultural setting. It will even take more work for me due to the fact that I do not have a very extensively diverse background. I will have to have an openness to understanding different experiences and traditions that patients might haveto be able to provide great and competent care. As a nurse I will be sure to be aware of barriers that can be set in place in an intercultural setting. I will be aware of nonverbal behaviors, language, bias and differing perception (Arnold and Boggs 2016). I really took to heart the fact that there will always be differences between what the patient expects verses what the provider expects and one has to be willing to try and understand the differences and work through them to the best of your