Product Description

"An excellent book for those interested in providing culturally responsive and effective care to our nation's increasingly diverse population"--Dr. Robert Like, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453943 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review

"A must-read book for any healthcare professional. . . . It should be in every hospital library."--Caregiver Journal

"An important addition to any hospital library or reading room."--Disabilities Studies Quarterly

"This 296-page text contains over 200 case studies that highlight important concepts from the fields of cultural diversity and medical anthropology. The studies illustrate cross-cultural misunderstandings and ways to provide culturally competent health care. Chapters cover a diverse range of topics, including birth, end of life, traditional medicine, mental health, pain, religion, and multicultural staff issues. The newly updated Caring for Patients from Different Cultures is even more comprehensive than the first two editions."--Diversity: Allied Health Careers

"A useful resource not only for practitioners and medical anthropologists but for professors of nursing, social work, and cultural psychology. Her reader-friendly book . . . will be a staple of medical anthropology seminars."--Anthropology of Consciousness

"An excellent book for those interested in providing culturally responsive and effective care to our nation's increasingly diverse population"--Dr. Robert Like, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

About the Author
Geri-Ann Galanti is on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, the Division of Nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the Doctoring Curriculum at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Customer Reviews

EVERY healthcare professional needs to read this!
As Director of Nursing for a small, rural county health department, I was looking for cultural information on dealing with Hispanic populations. What this book covers is all of that and more.It was a real eye opener! Ms. Galanti gives case synopses on caring for patients from many diverse cultures.She covers cultural differences with nutrition, religion, family support, response to pain, and a wealth of other topics.I purchased this book for our staff library, and a copy for myself and my nurse-mother. Anyone who deals with people from other cultures(not just health care providers) needs to read this book!

APPALLING book ! Full of insulting stereotypes & little insight!
I have a long-standing interest in cultural issues in healthcare and so I eagerly bought this book. It's in the 3rd edition--I figured it must be good.

It is appalling! You can turn to almost any page and find a portayal of a person from a minority culture that is presented in such a way that it makes the person sound like an idiot. Not just immigrant and ethnic minority patients--immigrant medical professionals, too.

In addition, she does not modify her gross generalizations by saying, "HIGHLY OBSERVANT Muslims" or "LESS-ACCULTURATED Mexicans" or even "SOME Chinese." No, for Galanti, she generalizes about Muslims, Mexicans and Chinese, with no gradations according to people's country of origin and degrees of orthodoxy (e.g. Muslims), generations in this country, fluency in English, etc.

I am afraid this volume will perpetuate stereotypes. Yes, it may be "fun reading" for people who know nothing about the topic, but they will end up with a view of "how weird those people are!" rather than either any true cultural understanding or a better sense of how to adapt their own practice to meet their patients' needs.

i have never returned a book in my life--this is going to be the first.

For alternative choices on related topics consider:
Culture & Clinical Care (Lipson & Dibble)
Ethnicity & Family THerapy (McGoldrick)
Child Abuse & Culture: Working with diverse families (Fontes)
The spirit Catches You and YOu Fall Down (Fadiman).

Stay away from this one!

High School Biology Teacher
My students loved the real life situations in this book!
I recommend that teachers use this to incorporate multiculturalism in a very meaningful way in biology classes, and welcome ideas about how others use it. The way I did it was to present the problem, have students brainstorm what they might do, and then reveal the resolution (or lack of one) from the book. I am so glad I found this while browsing the medical section. You are not likely to find a used copy for sale because the stories are so interesting to everyone.