Assignment: Cross-Cultural Conundrum
You are the manager of your local regional health clinic. You have a meeting with your Board of Trustees coming up in a few days. Your trustees have asked you to prepare a short presentation in response to an incident that occurred at your clinic just a few weeks ago:
A young Native American woman fell sustaining an injuring to her arm. After a week, her arm is still painful which causes her to visit a physician at your clinic. The physician orders tests, ascertains that there is no fracture, and decides to simply advise over-the-counter medication for inflammation and pain. Two weeks later the patient returns with the same issue at which time the physician believes that physical therapy will help the injured arm.
While undergoing physical therapy, the patient also visits with a local healer who prescribes herbal treatments for the injury. The patient returns to see the physician after two weeks with an improvement in her injury. On her last visit she wanted to discuss her desire to use natural treatments in conjunction with physical therapy with the white doctor but did not. In fact, she has discussed very little with her doctor about her injury, how it has affected her ability to care for her children and elderly mother, etc. She does not fully trust the white doctor and has heard him sound skeptical concerning healers from her culture or other types of "non-traditional" treatments. The patient does, however, feel that natural remedies administered by healers help her.
For this assignment, either prepare a speech by typing the transcript in a Word document, OR prepare a brief (7-8 slide) PowerPoint presentation. In your speech/presentation, address the following questions:
•What ethical issues does this incident raise?
•Should you be involved in this issue at all, or is this a job for another part of your organization?
•Propose a solution to the conflict, supporting your plan using ethical concepts.
•Include references.