The Difference between Culture-Ethnicity and Acculturation

The ease of migrating to other countries from native countries allows people of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds to interact, creating a multicultural society (Goh & Lopez, 2016). Therefore, as patients and medical practitioners interact, they need to be aware and respectful of each other’s ethnicity and cultural background to prevent misunderstandings. These intercultural interactions involve the interactions of people who have varying practices and knowledge, and hence, they may disagree on various things. Subsequently, health practitioners need to be aware of differences in culture, ethnicity, and acculturation.

There is a difference between culture, ethnicity, and acculturation. Culture involves the practices, way of life, and elements of a given group of people, which is continuous and unchanging. On the other hand, ethnicity is the identification or affiliation to a given group that identifies as culturally different from others and may change with preference. In contrast, acculturation is the process by which individuals adapt to and are assimilated into various cultures after intercultural interactions, causing changes. Consequently, people interacting in multicultural societies need to maintain awareness to prevent disputes from arising.

Health practitioners working in multicultural societies can undergo training on intercultural interactions to ensure understanding and respect between the health practitioner and the patient (Goh & Lopez, 2016). Furthermore, with the different cultures and individual identities, health practitioners can understand their patients and will be able to understand if culture, ethnicity, or acculturation plays a part in a patient’s ailment. Also, understanding culture, ethnicity, and acculturation allows health practitioners to assimilate easily into multicultural societies (Goh & Lopez, 2016).

In conclusion, culture refers to the way of life of an individual, while ethnicity refers to an individual’s identity in relation to a given group. On the other hand, acculturation is the change in cultural practices due to intercultural interaction. Consequently, understanding culture, ethnicity, and acculturation promotes understanding between health practitioners and their patients.

References

Goh, Y., & Lopez, V. (2016). Acculturation, quality of life and work environment of international nurses in a multicultural society: A cross-sectional, correlational study. Applied Nursing Research, 30, 111-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2015.08.004

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