Implications of Cultural Values and Beliefs on Caring Concepts
Abstract
This paper is a personal response to Anne Fadiman’s book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The paper includes a summary of the book, an overall impression of the reader, a discussion of three major themes evident in the book, and a description of a situation from the book and how the situation could be handled differently using references and material learned in 3020 Transcultural Nursing.
Keywords: culture, cultural barriers, values and beliefs, language barrier, assimilation process
The Collision of Two Cultures –
Implications of Cultural Values and Beliefs on Caring Concepts
After I finished my second summer semester this …show more content…
I had acquired my books already from a fellow student and went home to enjoy my three weeks of not studying; just working. As I was putting the books away at home, I started reading the back of Anne Fadiman’s book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” where a journalist of The Washington Post referred to the book as utterly engaging, readable, and a superb piece of writing. Instead of storing the book I carried it upstairs and put it on my night table. That evening after I snuggled up in my bed I got to know Lia Lee, her parents, her doctors, and I learned about the struggles that were involved in caring for an ill child that sat between two cultures; the Hmong culture and the culture of American health care professionals. Anne Fadiman takes the reader on a cultural journey where she describes the case of Lia Lee, a Hmong infant that suffers from epilepsy. As she tells the story of Lia and her immigrant family that had to flee from their home country and eventually gained entrance into the United States, she reveals the history and cultural traditions of the Hmong people. Moreover, she describes how her parents and the medical community of Merced Medical Center in California strive to help Lia as