It never ends. Every week we all get emails from someone in the "cultural competency division" who apparently gets paid to come up with stuff like this. One of them, seriously, was about Arab patients and how some of their health needs may be different. Do you know what these listed health concerns were?
I will reproduce the message in its entirety, as I have saved it due to being impressed by the complete lunacy of someone being paid to do this.
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Pain Management among Arabs
● Many Arabs express pain freely, especially in the presence of family members with whom they feel comfortable.
● When helping Arab patients manage their pain, it may be useful to keep in mind that:
1) Pain is feared and may cause panic when it occurs.
2) Coping with pain may be easier if enough information about its source and prognosis is provided.
3) When the benefits of potentially painful medical procedures are understood, a higher pain tolerance may result.
4) Some Arab patients may perceive intravenous fluids as an indication of the severity of the situation; thus, an explanation may be needed.
5) Injections may be considered more effective than pills.
6) Explaining the differences between self-medication and prescribed medication may be valuable if patients are considering self-medication.
7) Arab patients may also use metaphoric symbols such as fire, iron, knives and rocks to describe pain. Inquiring about these symbols may be useful to further understand pain management among Arabs.
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What I wanted to do was reply to this email, change every instance of the word "Arab" to "A PATIENT OF ANY ETHNICITY/NATIONALITY OR ANY OTHER SUCH CATEGORIZATION" but I didn't have the balls to do it.
Because, as we clearly have learned, non-Arab patients never fear pain or like to have things explained to them.
Again, I reiterate. This is someone's job.
