Middle Eastern Culture
Middle East comprises of 22 countries that follow the traditions of Arab culture. The population majority is by far of the Muslims who follow different aspects of the modern living standards conservatively. Being a Muslim, there are various constraints in the Arab culture and in order to work with them, the foreign workers have to respect those constraints and consider those as integral part of their lives. The Arab culture follows the extended family perspectives where the males are the dominant part and are responsible for feeding the families. The countries are rich with oil reserves therefore most of the population lives above the poverty line but that doesn’t impact the provision of better and proper medical services to everyone. The Arab culture emphasizes greatly on the western medicines. However, there are two types of the medical services that move parallel to each other; one is the medical services as pertained by the western culture also known as allopathic and other mostly belongs to older aged local practitioners who follow the natural aspects of every disease known as the herbal way of curing the patients (Rached, 123).
Arab culture emphasizes more on the family than any other thing. In contrary to the American culture, families are very close to the patients and stay with the patient until the patient is out of critical conditions. The medical doctors are respected all around the Arab countries and their suggestions and ideas are pretty much practiced as well by the patients. The beliefs are quite different as well for the Arab people as they regard Mighty Allah for the responsible for the life and death and in case any patient gets ill, many of the family members start to pray for the God apart from being taken care to the hospitals (Rached, 56). This is quite contrary to how the Americans or the western people behave in case anyone close to them gets ill. In the realm of the situation, the religious beliefs are considered of more strength than the medical care and there are some parts of Arab where the provision of acute medical care is still absent and the main ways of treating patients are done through herbal ways by praying to the God.
The societal differentiation between male and female is quite obvious as well where the females take veils and are obliged to retrain from confronting those males with whom they have no relation (Holtz, 56). However, with different advancement, the western culture has integrated into the system where now the male doctors are extensively used for the treatment even if the patient is male or female. The Arabs on the other hand wants to get healed quickly. Because of this reason they give much care in understanding what is being suggested by the doctors and take evasive actions according to the prescription. However, it is a pity that Arabs don’t get complete medication for a longer period. They are vulnerable to the continuity of medication and if they find any improvements in their health, they will surely get away from the medications and will not even bother to visit doctors again until they get ill again. This flaw has created much more serious consequences for the Arabs lately because they now have developed various permanent diseases but if they are physically well they don’t bother to visit a doctor.
The male doctors are preferred in nearly all the cases however, in the gynecological cases the females prefer to visit a female doctor (Faier, 88). Females can get suggestions from the male doctors but in actual operations, they want females to operate them. This is also a custom in Arabs that close family member of the family stays in the operation theatre with the patient in order to calm the patient down and see what is happening. In cases of serious illness where the consequences may lead to death, the doctors doesn’t have to confront the patient rather a family member will heard all from the doctor and may not even tell the patient about the seriousness of the health. Arab people expect good news and in fact they will also forward good news to the others and patient but will not forward anything that implies to be disastrous.
Nurses are not given a special protocol by the Arabs, in fact the Muslim population believes only in the guidance from a professional doctor and might not even confront a nurse for professional suggestion. Nurses are considered as helpers who will help doctors in getting their schedules right and how they might handle the equipments during the operations. This is where the doctors have to tell the executive role of nurses to the patient and the family members, but still problem persists. In fact the nurses don’t have any social respect in the society as well where they are not treated well by the family members. Nurses are like servants who have been hired for some duration. The majority of the nurses in Arab countries is female and belongs to low income families whereas males completely try to restrain from becoming nurses as opposed to the American culture where male nurses play effective role in the professional guidance and help during the whole stay of a patient in the hospital.
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