How Cultures Influence a Person's Action (Source: TEDx, 2014)
Cross-Cultural Communication
The above video summarises how a person’s culture influence how they live, view the world and communicate (Stein-Parbury, 2017; TEDx, 2014). In addition, a person’s culture could also influence their attitudes towards understanding illness and approaches to healthcare (Kirmayer 2011).
In order to deliver a client-centred treatment plan, TCM practitioner have to adopt suitable cross-cultural communication, to convey their respect and understanding of patients’ cultural beliefs, while also communicating the importance of certain treatments plans (Brown, Ten Ham-Baloyi, van Rooyen, Aldous & Marais, 2016). Suggested steps to cross-cultural communications are highlighted in Figure 1.
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Figure 1. Outline of Steps to Cross-Cultural Communication
References
Brown, O., Ten Ham-Baloyi, W., van Rooyen, D. R., Aldous, C., & Marais, L. C. (2016). Culturally competent patient-
provider communication in the management of cancer: An integrative literature review. Global health action, 9, 33208. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.33208
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DeVito, J. A. (2016). The interpersonal communication book (14th ed.). Pearson, Boston, Massachusetts:
Pearson.
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Egan, G. (2014). The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity- development approach to
helping (10th ed.). Belmont, California: Brooks/Cole.
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Hendersona, S., Barkerb, M., & Mak, M. (2016). Strategies used by nurses, academics and students to overcome
intercultural communication challenges. Nurse Education in Practice, 16(1), 71-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2015.08.010
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Kirmayer, L.J., 2011. Multicultural medicine and the politics of recognition. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy,
36, 410–423. http://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhr024
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Mesquita, A. C., & De Carvalho, E. C. (2014). Therapeutic Listening as a health intervention strategy: An
integrative review. The University of São Paulo Nursing School Journal, 48(6), 1123-1131. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0080-623420140000700022
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O’Toole, G. (2016). Communication: Core interpersonal skills for health professionals (3rd ed.). Chatswood. NSW:
Elsevier Australia.
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Lin, Z. (2016). The international communication of traditional Chinese medicine culture: Challenges and
strategies. Cross-Cultural Communication, 12(3), 17-21. https://doi.org/10.3968/8264
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Stein-Parbury, J. (2017). Patient and person: Interpersonal skills in nursing (6th ed.). Sydney, Australia: Elsevier.
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TEDx. (2014). Cross cultural communication | Pellegrino Riccardi | TEDxBergen [Video]. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMyofREc5Jk.
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Zhu, P. (2004). Communicating traditional Chinese medicine across cultures rhetorical and linguistic challenges
and possible solutions (Published Ph.D.’s thesis). Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2346/21722
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In a study, Zhu (2004) used the Shannon-Weaver model of communication to analyse the challenges in cross-cultural communication of TCM. The rhetorical nature of TCM explanations of illnesses may lead to weak audience awareness, especially when the clients are not very familiar with Chinese culture (Lin, 2016; Zhu, 2004). To address this challenge, the TCM practitioner will have to try to understand their clients foundational values and views on health, then patiently explain the TCM treatment rationales while actively showing that the client’s views are considered (Henderson et al., 2016). Adopting active listening may be employed as a strategy for understanding the client, as it forms the basis of establishing a therapeutic relationship (Mesquita & De Carvalho, 2014).
ABOUT
Me
I'm Christine Yen. I currently study Bachelor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at Western Sydney University.