Handbook of Research on Interdisciplinary Studies on Healthcare, Culture, and the Environment


Book Description

As healthcare, culture, and the environment remain crucial aspects of modern society, the current issues and opportunities within each sector must be examined and considered in order to ensure their success in the future. These critical fields should be studied in relation to each other as they must work in tandem to create a better society. The Handbook of Research on Interdisciplinary Studies on Healthcare, Culture, and the Environment presents innovative ideas and emerging research to highlight critical trends focusing on the relationship between healthcare, environmental wellbeing, and society and culture. Covering a range of topics such as sustainability, leadership, and food security, this reference work is ideal for industry professionals, researchers, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.




When Culture Impacts Health


Book Description

Bringing the hard-to-quantify aspects of lived experience to analysis, and emphasizing what might be lost in interventions if cultural insights are absent, this book includes case studies from across the Asia and Pacific regions –Bangladesh, Malaysia, New Guinea, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu and the Cook Islands. When Culture Impacts Health offers conceptual, methodological and practical insights into understanding and successfully mediating cultural influences to address old and new public health issues including safe water delivery, leprosy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and body image. It contains useful methodological tools – how to map cultural consensus, measure wealth capital, conduct a cultural economy audit, for example. It provides approaches for discerning between ethnic and racial constructs and for conducting research among indigenous peoples. The book will be indispensible for culture and health researchers in all regions. Discusses global application of case descriptions Demonstrates how a cultural approach to health research enriches and informs our understanding of intractable public health problems Covers methods and measurements applicable to a variety of cultural research approaches as well as actual research results Case studies include medical anthropology, cultural epidemiology, cultural history and social medicine perspectives




Urban Health and Society


Book Description

Praise for Urban Health and Society "This is a spectacular resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and students interested in improving the lives and health of individuals and families in urban settings. This book provides the most current frameworks, research, and approaches for understanding how unique features of the urban physical and social environments that shape the health of over half of the world's population that is already residing in large cities. Its interdisciplinary research and practice focus is a welcome innovation." Hortensia Amaro, associate dean, Urban Health Research; Distinguished Professor, Bouve College of Health Sciences; and director, Institute on Urban Health Research, Northeastern University "Urban Health and Society: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research and Practice provides students in public health, urban planning, social work, and other professions with the critical knowledge and practical guidance they need to work as effective members of interdisciplinary teams aimed at studying and addressing urban health problems. Throughout the chapters, the book's attention to community participation, social justice, and equity as well as interdisciplinary research methods make it an invaluable resource." Barbara A. Israel, professor, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan "The book will be of great interest to academics, politicians, planners, and public health professionals attempting to understand or reduce urban health risks, create safe urban environments, and deliver effective and sustainable health services and programs to urban populations." Stephen Lepore, professor and PhD program director, Department of Public Health, Temple University




Patient Safety and Quality


Book Description

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/




Culture in Clinical Care


Book Description

Culture in Clinical Care: Strategies for Competence explores theory and practice to define and describe the multidimensional nature of culture and its interaction with an individual’s experience in the development of beliefs, values, and behavior. The newly updated Second Edition examines cultural beliefs related to health and wellness and how these beliefs and their associated actions affect intervention strategies. Based on ethnographic methods, strategies for culturally sensitive assessment and intervention are defined and illustrated, with ample opportunities for reflection and practice. Going beyond traditional fact-centered and attitude-centered approaches, Culture in Clinical Care, Second Edition describes the ways in which culture emerges as individuals interact with each other in physical and social environments. This one-of-a-kind text by Dr. Bette Bonder and Dr. Laura Martin provides health care practitioners and students with chapter objectives, critical thinking questions, interdisciplinary case studies and examples, numerous activities to build observation and interaction skills, comprehensive references and online resources, and images. The book’s organization emphasizes practice and reflection by interweaving theory, examples, and continuous hands-on application of concepts. Readers have the opportunity to practice what they are learning and evaluate their own effectiveness while being constantly reminded that all individuals in any interaction embody numerous cultural influences. Benefits of the updated Second Edition: Training and practice in ethnographic methods that build awareness and skill Numerous examples, exercises, and activities for reflection and observation Interdisciplinary approach suitable for cross-disciplinary teaching contexts Definition of health care professions themselves as cultures Web and bibliographic resources Case studies involving a wide range of practitioner disciplines and cultural groups Culture in Clinical Care: Strategies for Competence, Second Edition fills a niche in health professions programs because of its combined emphasis on a theoretical foundation that highlights the individual as a cultural actor and on practical strategies and methods for clinical interventions. Instructors in educational settings can visit www.efacultylounge.com for additional material to be used in the classroom, including a sample syllabus. Occupational therapists, physicians, physician assistants, mental health professionals, and a variety of related health professionals will benefit from this interactive, interdisciplinary text.




Culture, Diversity and Mental Health - Enhancing Clinical Practice


Book Description

This book discusses the importance of culture and diversity within society through multicultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural encounters while applying psychological effectiveness to manage core competencies. It carefully explains how influential the social environment is to an individual within a society. It seeks to directly affect mental health practitioners’ treatment within practices in accordance to specific ethno-cultural clients; and it seeks to encourage students and practitioners to practice acceptance of diverse groups and multiracial communities. Although understanding various cultural norms and accepting diversity is not always simple, the book promotes a global understanding through identifying cultural benefits within a multiracial, multi-ethnic society, while evoking culturally competent techniques for mental health practitioners.




Environmental Humanities


Book Description

There has been an increasing archaeological interest in human-animal-nature relations, where archaeology has shifted from a focus on deciphering meaning, or understanding symbols and the social construction of the landscape to an acknowledgment of how things, places, and the environment contribute with their own agencies to the shaping of relations.This means that the environment cannot be regarded as a blank space that landscape meaning is projected onto. Parallel to this, the field of environmental humanities poses the question of how to work with the intermeshing of humans and their surroundings.To allow the environment back in as an active agent of change, means that landscape archaeology can deal better with issues such as global warming, an escalating loss of biodiversity, as well as increasingly toxic environment. However, this does not leave human agency out of the equation. It is humans who reinforce the environmental challenges of today.The scholarly field of the humanities deal with questions like how is meaning attributed, what cultural factors drive human action, what role is played by ethics, how is landscape experienced emotionally, as well as how concepts derived from art, literature, and history function in such processes of meaning attribution and other cultural processes. This humanities approach is of utmost importance when dealing with climate and environmental challenges ahead and we need a new landscape archaeology that meets these challenges, but also that meets well across disciplinary boundaries. Here inspiration can be found in discussions with scholars in the emerging field of Environmental Humanities.




Culture of Health in Practice


Book Description

Weaving together research findings and narratives, Culture of Health in Practice: Innovations in Research, Community Engagement, and Action explores the many opportunities we have as a society to advance a Culture of Health and makes the case that a commitment to health equity is fundamental to bringing those efforts into the mainstream. In this latest contribution to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Series, contributors describe the challenges and opportunities in rural and urban regions, in neighborhoods and schools, in prisons and workplaces. They explore different populations, including immigrants, minority youth, and individuals with substance use disorders; the risks posed by climate change; the role of the media in shaping the public discourse; and the innovations being spearheaded by health providers, insurers, and community leaders. Together, the chapters carry the message that while the challenges are daunting, achieving health equity for all lies within reach.




Transformative Approaches to Patient Literacy and Healthcare Innovation


Book Description

The disconnect between technology and traditional practices poses a significant challenge. Many healthcare professionals and individuals struggle to navigate the influx of emerging technologies, hindering the full realization of their potential in revolutionizing health literacy and medical practice. The lack of cohesive understanding and integration of technologies like mobile applications, wearable devices, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine impedes the seamless delivery of healthcare services and obstructs individuals from actively managing their health. Transformative Approaches to Patient Literacy and Healthcare Innovation offers a comprehensive solution to bridge the gap between healthcare and technology. Delving into the dynamic fusion of these domains, it unravels the transformative power of technology applications, showcasing how they enhance health literacy and empower individuals to make informed decisions about their well-being. By providing insights into the integration of mobile health apps, electronic health records, extended reality, artificial intelligence, and more, the book equips readers with the knowledge needed to navigate the evolving healthcare landscape with confidence.




Maternal Health and American Cultural Values


Book Description

This book uniquely explores American cultural values as a factor in maternal health. It looks beyond the social determinants of health as primarily contributing to the escalating maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. The United States is an outlier with poor maternal health outcomes and high morbidity/mortality in comparison to other high-resource and many mid-level resource nations. While the social determinants of health identify social and environmental conditions affecting maternal health, they do not answer the broader underlying question of why many American women, in a high-resource environment, experience poor maternal health outcomes. Frequent near-misses, high levels of severe childbearing-related morbidity, and high maternal mortality are comparable to those of lower-resource nations. This book includes contributions from recognized medical and cultural anthropologists, and diverse clinical and public health professionals. The authors examine American patterns of decision-making from the perspectives of intersecting social, cultural, and medical values influencing maternal health outcomes. Using an interdisciplinary critical analysis approach, the work draws upon decision-making theory and life course theory. Topics explored include: Cultural values as a basis for decision-making Social regard for motherhood Immigrants, refugees and undocumented mothers Cultural conflicts and maternal autonomy Health outcomes among justice-involved mothers Maternal Health and American Cultural Values: Beyond the Social Determinants is an essential resource for clinical and public health practitioners and their students, providing a framework for graduate-level courses in public health, the health sciences, women’s studies, and the social sciences. The book also targets anthropologists, sociologists, and women studies scholars seeking to explain the links between American cultural decision-making and health outcomes. Policy-makers, ethicists, journalists, and advocates for reproductive health justice also would find the text a useful resource.