Timeliness and Culture in Healthcare - Essay Example

"Timeliness and Culture in Healthcare" is a good example of a paper on social and family issues.
The healthcare sector needs to understand that cultural beliefs constitute individual values and dictate their behaviors, a situation that requires effective measures to handle any foreseeable conflict (Hogtson, Richard, and Barbara 62). In the case of timeliness, doctors, and other healthcare professionals need to understand that different cultures have varied perspectives about keeping time. If an individual comes from a cultural background that does not value time, the healthcare management needs to develop strategies for creating awareness among both the staff and the patients in explaining the implication of such actions. For instance, the doctor, upon realizing that a patient has not adhered to the scheduled appointment time, should enlighten the patient on the implication of his or her actions. On the other hand, the doctor can paint a clear picture of the patient by arguing that there could be more patient appointments waiting and not adhering strictly to the schedule may affect the entire operations in the hospital. As a result, at the clinical level, the management of a healthcare facility needs to set up initiatives for enlightening the patients about the implications of their behaviors.

On the contrary, health professionals fail to adhere to the appointments as evident from the long waiting hours sometimes patients are forced to endure. In this case, the healthcare professionals may be suggesting that their positions make them superior to the patients. However, the caregivers should bear in mind that timeliness is a cultural issue that compels patients to expect their caregivers to respect their perspective about timekeeping (Hogtson, Richard, and Barbara 62). The implication is that the long waiting hour's patients endure is a clear indication that healthcare givers put themselves in a higher hierarchy than the patients where they disregard healthcare user's perception of time. To the healthcare providers, there is no point in delaying an appointment because biomedical obligations force patients to keep time no matter when the doctor arrives for the occasion.