Enrollments of international students have increased dramatically in
the last several decades. The delivery of health care to these students has
become a topic of study for college health care providers and medical
researchers across the country. The purpose of this study was to explore how
Asian international students cope with illness while in school at Oregon State
University. Interviews were held with international students from Japan,
Korea, China and selected health care providers from the Oregon State
University health center. Information was sought describing health care
issues, and perspectives on medical care. The interplay between the
student's perspectives and experiences and those of health care providers was
explored as they revealed the role of culture in the cross-cultural medical
situation.
In contrast to other findings I maintain that it is the effects of culture,
that is, the envisioning of different realities, in similar situations, that affect
both patients and practitioners in the cross-cultural medical encounter.
American core cultural values, in conjunction with a biomedical paradigm,
formulate a base from which university health care providers interpret their
clinical reality. Asian international students bring with them to the medical
encounter a different paradigm that, for them, provides a definitive view of
illness and health care. It also is grounded in meanings learned from cultural
experiences. The anthropological views presented here are powerful and of
considerable value in clinical settings because they assist individuals in
moving beyond culture-bound realities in order develop a pluralistic
perspective that validates the existence of different illness realities in the
cross-cultural medical encounter. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35666 |
| Date | 16 November 1993 |
| Creators | Barclay, Julie Hanson |
| Contributors | Rosenberger, Nancy |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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