Does Diversity Matter for Health?

[WayOutWestMom]

Where did these particular ideas come from?

Many of them are traditional stereotypes, but apparently in some case these myths are being perpetuated by textbooks…

https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/too-many-doctors-still-believe-dangerous-racial-stereotypes.html

The eye-popping passage — which fell under the apparently well-meaning headline “Focus on Diversity” — purported to teach nurses-in-training how to understand their patients’ responses to pain. “Arabs/Muslims,” the authors warn, “May not request pain medicine but instead thank Allah for pain if it is the result of a healing medical procedure.” Native Americans “tolerate a high level of pain without requesting pain medication” — and when they do admit to needing anesthetics, they prefer drugs that have been blessed by shamans. This wasn’t some relic from a used bookstore; Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning was published in 2014.

Nursing students began tweeting equally toxic passages from other textbooks. Textbook of Basic Nursing warns that Asians may not like having their blood drawn, because they consider it to be their body’s life force and doubt that it can be regenerated. Another manual suggests that students focus on communicating nonverbally when their patients are African-American.