Question

Subject: Law & Ethics

Identify 2 issues that may arise when the health professional and the patient are from different cultures and different genders? how would you as an MA address these issues?

Answer 1

Health professionals and patients are expected and desired to have good understanding so that the treatment can go smoothly. But there are scenarios where issues could arise and become problematic.

When the professional and patient are from different cultures, the patient might not take the medicine as prescribed. Because, in some areas, people use only particular diet for a health problem. This could be opposite to what the professional prescribed. This could be very problematic.

When the professional and patient are of different genders, there are few situations which could be problematic. If the patient is female, she cannot open up to a male professional as much as she would with a female professional.

These issues can be resolved by creating an awareness in the patients in the first case. They should be made understood that medicine must be taken strictly as prescribed. In the second case, according to health department, same gender must be assigned to avoid issues.