Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:An Overview of the Culture of Health Care
Lecture:Learning more about the culture of health care
Slide content:Cultural Assumptions May Hinder Practical Understanding Modern anthropology rejects the idea of isolated society with fixed set of beliefs That idea leads to stereotypingmay get in the way of solving the problem Translate this to HIT and health professional interaction- reject the idea of an isolated society with a fixed set of beliefs Focus on issues, not cultural stereotypes (professional culture or otherwise) 13
Slide notes:In learning more about the culture of health care, its important that we keep our cultural assumptions from hindering practical understanding. Remember that modern anthropology rejects the idea of isolated societies with fixed sets of beliefs. There no single culture of biomedicine. Rather the culture of health care is the interaction and intersection of many diverse professional, organizational, and other cultures. We need to avoid stereotypingassuming that individuals always and only exhibit behaviors of a single monolithic culturebecause this may get in the way of solving the problem. We can translate these ideas from cultural competency to the interaction between health information technology and health informatics [in- fer -mat- iks ] and health professionals, rejecting the idea of an isolated society with a set of beliefs. This helps us focus on issues rather than cultural stereotypes, whether they are stereotypes about professional culture or other cultures. 13