Global Encounters - Literature review Example

Download file to see previous pages Up to the present time, there is a wide gap that exists between the availability of Western medical services and the demand for Western medicine. Barriers between Western medicine and sick individuals around the world include not only communication problems but also financial and cultural issues. In line with this matter, it remains a fact that one of the most common reasons that make a lot of people lose their faith and/or trust in the practice of Western medicine is caused by language barriers (Fadiman 1997: Ch. 3, p. 25).

Given that communication problem can lead to a large number of misdiagnosis cases, a lot of patients who seek for Western medicine ends up having adverse health effects rather than accurately rendering the patients with proper treatment and care. Aiming to minimize the gap between the physicians and the patients and/or patients’ family members, the hospital administrator has the option to hire qualified translators with competitive knowledge of medicine. However, this option can increase the operational costs of the hospital. According to Fadiman (1997), MCMC complex – a rual county hospital intentionally hire bilingual medical staff members or allow ten-year-old girls to do the translate the discussion on issues related to the need to resuscitate a dying patient with the family members (Fadiman 1997: Ch. 3, p. 25). The problem with having a ten-year-old girl to do the translation increases the possibility for people to doubt the medical diagnosis provided to them by the physicians.

Aside from communication barriers, the fact that investing in modern medical facilities which include building large hospital buildings, setting up a large number of surgical beds, medical and radiology laboratories and purchasing other newly innovated diagnostic machines like the MRI or the CT scan equipments can be very costly makes the presence of tertiary hospitals less accessible to people who lives in rural and less populated areas. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More