Culture and Health

Entry requirements

Registered nurse, medical doctor, pharmacist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or biomedical laboratory technician. Last-year students of these educations and exchanged students.

Learning outcomes

Students will have understanding of anthropological perspectives on the human life cycle, socio-cultural aspects on health and disease, health problems in different cultural settings, and beliefs in and practices of various types of treatments in different cultures. The students will get knowledge of transcultural communication as means of overcoming cultural biases. As a part of their practice of such skills, students will come in contact with people from different cultures. Research methods in cultural care and medical anthropology will be integrated. The course will be given in English.

After finishing the course, the students should

- have knowledge about anthropological perspectives on the human life cycle

- have knowledge about socio-cultural aspects on health and disease

- understand health problems in different cultural settings

- understand beliefs in and practices of various types of treatments in different cultures

- have knowledge about transcultural communication as a means to overcome cultural biases

- be able to apply knowledge from theory and practice in order to carry out research studies in cultural care and medical anthropology

Content

Introduction to anthropology and global health

Cultures and values

Beliefs and values of different cultural groups

Human life cycle and socio-cultural aspects on health and disease

Health problems in different cultural settings

Types of treatments in different cultural settings

Transcultural communication (barriers, techniques, assessment, etc.)

Research methods in cultural care and medical anthropology

Practice of transcultural communication skills

Research Methodology in health

Instruction

The course will be carried through in five weeks. The first three weeks will take place in the class-room and will provide basic knowledge about culture and health and about transcultural communication. The final two weeks will be concerned with practice and assignments which will be carried out as training in transcultural communication techniques in the classroom as well as in health care workplaces and in other settings. Foreign students will be allowed to use English language.

Teaching will be in the form of lectures, seminars, and supervision of individual work and group work.

Assessment

The examination will be based on the written assignments on scientific articles, individual work, group work, and participation in the seminars.