Recognizing Similarities
In my experience, as discussion continues, people realize that many personal beliefs and practices do, in fact, differ from what they are being taught in nurs- ing or medical education to accept as the right way of doing things. Participants begin to admit that they do not seek medical care when the first symptoms of illness appear. On the contrary, they usually delay seeking care and often elect to self-treat at home. They also recognize that there are many preventive and health maintenance acts learned in school with which they choose not to ob- serve. Sometimes, they discover that they are following self-imposed regimen for health-related problems and are not seeking any outside intervention.
Another facet of a group discussion is the participants’ exposure to the similarities that exist among them in terms of HEALTH maintenance and pro- tection. To their surprise and delight, they find that many of their daily acts— routines they take for granted—directly relate to methods of maintaining and protecting HEALTH.
As is common in most large groups, students seem to be shy at the begin- ning of this exploration. As more and more members of the group are willing to share their experiences, however, other students feel more comfortable and share more readily. A classroom tactic I have used to break the ice is to reveal an experience I had on the birth of my first child. My mother-in-law, an im- migrant from Eastern Europe, drew a circle around the child’s crib with her
172 ■ Chapter 7
Table 7–2 Examples of Selected Familial Ethnocultural and Religious Beliefs and Practices Related to Birth and Death