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:Chasing Rich Points Exposed to other cultures, we notice rich points The job is to chase rich points that help translate meaning from one culture to another Culture is not a property of them or us, it is a translation between the two. And it is never a complete translation, always partial. This applies to traditional cultural translation, e.g. traditional medicine to Western medicine It also applies to professional cultural translation: health professional to HIT professional 9
Slide notes:The point here is that much can be learned by chasing these rich points. By exposing ourselves to other cultures, usually through fieldwork or site visits, we notice these rich points or differences in behavior that seem to make no sense, given our own cultural assumptions and values. The job then is to chase these rich points and translate the meaning from one culture to another. Culture, then, is not a property of them or of us, but rather a translation between the two. And its never a complete translation; its always partial. This applies to traditional cultural translation, such as translating from traditional healing practices to modern western biomedicine. It can also apply to professional cultural translation, such as translating from the culture of health professionals to that of information technology, or IT, professionals. 9