Amish Culture and Heritage
Every community has a culture. Culture refers to different beliefs and values that are respected by individuals of a given community. Different communities have different cultural beliefs. However, people have to live together regardless of the cultural differences. People should therefore be in a position to accept and respect cultural believes of other communities. Cultural diversity is the acceptance of the cultural beliefs of different people and respecting these believes. This is an important aspect in facilitating co existence of individuals in different environment (Purnell, 2008). Cultural diversity enables people to freely interact and this is important in promoting economic growth and interdependence between individuals.
Cultural competence is the ability of an individual to work with people from different cultural backgrounds without any problem. In the modern world, people from different cultural backgrounds meet at the work place. Companies, nongovernmental organization and government organizations employ people from different backgrounds. These employees should co operate with each other to achieve the set objectives of an organization. Serving the customers of any business requires cultural competence to ensure that proper communication between the customer and the employee has taken place (Purnell, 2008). This will make it possible to meet the needs of the customers more effectively. Nurses for example need to understand the cultural background of the patients so as to offer the proper medication to the patient.
Cultural competence requires the recognition of four issues. The first issue is the recognition of an individuals’ culture. For an individual to be culturally competent, he/she should understand the culture. He should be aware of the beliefs and values that exist in his community. The next feature of cultural competence is culture appreciation. The individual should be aware how his/her culture is different from that of others. The individual should then appreciate the importance of the difference in culture. The other factor is the understanding of how the world views each culture (Paulanka, 2008). One should be in a position to understand how the other people in the society perceive different cultural believes and values of different communities. Finally, cultural skills are necessary. This is the ability of an individual to practice the culture of other people when situation need an individual to act in that manner.
Cultural competence enables an individual to effectively communicate and interact with other people effectively and understand their needs. This facilitates co existence of such individuals. Generally, cultural competence arises when people have cultural diversity.
The Amish people are a group of people who possess Christianity in their culture. However, they strongly hold various traditional believe especially in matters relating to health. Amish community view illness and health differently from other people. According to the Amish community, health is the ability of an individual to work hard. In addition, when an individual has appetite, this person is said to be healthy. Therefore health to the Amish people is described in terms of appetite and hard work. If an individual is able to work normally, then such a person can be said to be healthy. In addition, a person who can eat food is said to be healthy (Purnell, 2008).
On the other hand, illness to the Amish people occurs when an individual is not able to eat food. When a person has not appetite, he/she can be said to ill. When a person is not able to perform the normal daily activities, such a person can be said to be ill. In general, illness in Amish community is not defined in terms of symptoms. Symptoms alone cannot define illness in the Amish community (Paulanka, 2008). What is important is the ability to work and eat. Since people in this community usually work together in groups means that the individuals could know when their member is not healthy.
The Amish community engages in practices that make them healthy hence avoiding medical treatment. They ensure that they eat traditional foods that they grow themselves. Therefore modern diseases are not common in the community. The community emphasizes that playing is important. The exercise that they engage in playing helps to maintain their health. The community is against consumption of drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. These drugs can only be used in cases where there is need for treatment (Purnell, 2009). The use of drugs can result to illnesses and therefore avoiding the drugs acts as a way of maintaining health.
The Amish community believes in alternative medicine as a method of cure. In this regard, there are many traditional doctors in the region. In addition, the people who are sick are advised to pray as a method of facilitating cure. The church leaders pray the role of praying for the sick people. The community believes in some people with gifts from God to cure various illnesses. These people just speak out words and therefore the ill individuals believe that they will be cured. Therefore faith and traditional medication plays a big role in healing of various diseases among the Amish people (Purnell, 2008). In addition, the community emphasize on simple life and traditional foods as a way to prevent diseases that are common among the civilized people.
The Amish community has the belief that body of an individual is the temple of God. This is why they do not consume any drug. Specifically, they do not engage in drug abuse that is common among many individuals. This play a great role in promoting the health of the Amish people (Purnell, 2008). In addition, the failure of the people to go for medical treatment is the belief that by taking the drugs, they will be destroying the temple of God (Their bodies)
The Amish people believe that illness is caused by sins. The people who are sick must have committed sins according to the Amish beliefs. Therefore, these people are required to repent for forgiveness. The people can also pray their God so that they can be forgiven by God hence receiving cure (Paulanka, 2008). The people also consult their church leaders to pray for them so that their sins can be forgiven hence leading to healing.
The Amish community does not believe in the use of modern technology and this is why they always avoid western medicine. The Amish also do not engage in family planning methods. They are also against abortion cases. The people go to hospital when it is excessively necessary. As a result, many people die before they are taken to the hospital. The people also emphasize that living near a hospital is wrong (Purnell, 2009). As a result, it is difficult of the people to access medical care. The people also do not take health insurance policies. They believe that doing so is wrong. Instead, they pay cash so that they can bargain for the payments.
The men in Amish community play an important role in relation to treatment. They are the ones who decide whether a woman or children should go for treatment. In addition, the men are required to accompany the sick individual when he/she goes for medical treatment (Purnell, 2008). In addition, men were mostly associated with the invention of the traditional methods of treatment. Therefore men play an important part when it comes to treatment of the people in Amish culture.
Purnell, L. D., & Paulanka, B. J. (2008). Transcultural health care: A culturally competent
approach. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.
Purnell, L. D. (2009). Guide to culturally competent health care. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
