Culture and cancer: the relevance of cultural orientation within cancer edcation programmes

Health professionals are frequently called upon to care for those whose cultural backgrounds are unfamiliar and different from their own. The impact of the family's cultural values and beliefs in their response to a diagnosis of cancer are not emphasized in health professionals' education and consequently, may be underestimated, leading to less effectsivce care. Analysis of the experiences of 12 immigrant families in a western health care setting reveals that culturally embedded meanings are attached to illness, and this frequently affects patient and family responses to care. For instance, in certain cultures, the occurrence of cancer may be attributed to insufficient use of herbal medicine, an insult to an ancestor ordue to a perceived punishment. Thus, standard medical approaches may not always appeatr releveant to certain groups in multicltural patient populations. The purpose of this paper is to describe patient and family coping experiences and stress‐related factors in Italian, Portuguese and Chinese immigrant families as they have been described during routine family assessment interviews. It is argued that there is need for an expanded knowledge of health professionals who manage those with cancer so that culturally embedded meanings can be adequately understood. It is maintained that models of patient and family care should allow for possible discrepancies in patient‐care giver understandings, and encourage a collaborative approach towards treatment and care. The paper concludes that cultural content must be an integral part of cancer education programmes in order for health professionals to be effective in their practice and care.