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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Copyright © 2013 F.A. Davis Company
Amish
Larry Purnell, PhD, RN, FAAN
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview
- Came to the United States in 1693 for the same reason many other groups came to America—persecution and to practice their lifestyle as they so chose.
- No reference group in other parts of the world.
- Adapt to dominant society slowly and selectively
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- Mutuality and sharing rather than individual achievement and competition
- All speak English and are taught English in school, but most speak Deitsch and various dialects (Pennsylvania German) at home
- Healthcare providers by definition are outsiders
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- Majority of men work on farms or in carpentry
- If women work outside the home, they work in restaurants, sewing, and teach in their schools
- If they work far away from home, prefer to live with another Amish family.
- Shared finances are the norm.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- A few have telephones, including cell phones for business but do not let it ring in the house.
- Some are using communally shared computers because of the necessity of ordering online instead of mail order catalogues.
- A few may drive cars but only out of necessity for work and never on the Sabbath.
Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- Some illnesses and symptom expression do not have direct translations into English
- Highly contexted culture
- What is common knowledge regarding health matters to most are not to the Amish due to no TV, major newspapers, etc.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- New communities are being formed in the United States due to lack of land in immediate community
- New communities in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Belize, Central America
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Overview Continued
- Demut—humility and demureness
- Gelassenheit—quiet acceptance, reassurance, and resignation
- Temporality is grounded into present time and guided by natural rhythms
- Seek health care from afar when needed
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Myths
- They do ride in cars and may even own a car out of necessity but severe restrictions as to when and where it can be driven.
- Do use the telephone but do not have them in the home. May be located in a neighborhood grocery or deli.
- Kerosene refrigerators and gas hot water heaters—no electricity—generators instead
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Family Roles
- Man is head of the family.
- Women are accorded high respect and status. In private they are partners, in public, women assume a retiring role.
- Freindschaft—three-generation families. Grandparents live in separate house or separate quarters of the home.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Alternative Lifestyles
- Singleness is not stigmatized
- Same-sex couple may live together out of necessity when away from home.
- Pregnancy before marriage is rare, couple encouraged to marry, or the child can be adopted. Abortion is unacceptable.
- Gays/Lesbians remain closeted and can cause concern for healthcare provider.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Genetic Diseases
- High rates because of a closed gene pool
- Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome
- Cartilage hair hypoplasia
- Pyruvate kinase anemia
- Hemophilia B
- Phenylketonuria
- Glucaric aciduria
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Genetic Diseases Continued
- Manic-depressive illness
- Bipolar effective disorders are higher than general population
- Low rates of alcoholism, drug/alcohol abuse
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Nutrition
- Mostly home-grown foods
- Local storage lockers
- Increasing trend for junk/snack food
- Diet is high in fat and carbohydrates leading to obesity, especially in women.
- Food has a significant social meaning during visiting.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Childbearing Practices
- Children are a gift from God and large families are an asset usually
- Start families early to mid to late 20s
- Have lay-midwives but use allopathic practitioners if necessary
- Some women are interested in birth control—as are men, but rarely talked about
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Childbearing Practices Continued
- Will attend live prenatal classes
- May use herbs, blue cohosh pills to enhance labor
- Grandmothers provide much assistance
- Older children help care for younger children
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Death Rituals
- Exceptionally rare to be in a long-term care facility
- If at all possible, prefer to die at home
- If family member is caring for the ill at home, neighbors may do the cooking and farm chores
- Do use visiting nurses and therapists when needed
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Death Rituals Continued
- Visiting during illness and after death is an obligation
- Neighbors take care of family and friends coming from afar
- “Wakelike” sitting up all night is not uncommon
- Plain wooden coffin for burial
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Death Rituals Continued
- Burial in home cemetery or in community church cemetery
- Death is a normal transition of life
- May present as stoic—although loss is keenly felt
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Spirituality
- No regional or national church
- Districts divided into 30 to 50 families or 200 to 300 people
- All religious leaders are male, volunteered, and untrained
- National committee may be used for some decisions affecting other communities
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Spirituality Continued
- Corporate worship is the norm with faith-related behavior, not individual wishes.
- Salvation is ultimately individual.
- If engaged in sinful activity, can rejoin the church after proper penitence.
- Church officials may be sought in healthcare matters.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Spirituality
- Healthcare decisions are ultimately an individual matter
- Want to have a decision in healthcare matters—just ask me/us
- Health promotion is a family/individual affair
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Healthcare Practices
- Healthcare knowledge is passed among and between families by the women
- No health insurance but communities share and have the Amish Aid Society
- Some places give a discount because of cash payment
- Cost of procedures may be a deciding factor to have the procedure done
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Healthcare Practices Continued
- Herbal treatments
- Self-medication
- Abwaarde—minister by being present
- Achtgewwe—helping others and is many times gender- and age-related
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Healthcare Practices Continued
- Brauche or sympathy curing, laying on of warm hands, or powwowing and is similar to Native American practices
- Abnemme—failure to thrive and child is taken to a healer who may perform incantations
- Aagwachse or livergrown, grown together caused by jostling buggy rides
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Healthcare Practices Continued
- Usually stoical with pain and physical discomfort
- “Physically or mentally different” are fully accepted into the community without stigma.
- Time off for illness is acceptable.
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Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th Edition
Healthcare Practitioners
- Braucher or traditional healer first and may be men or women
- Use reflexology and massage as well as herbal therapies
- Western healthcare practitioners, nurses, physicians, dentists are outsiders, but use them when needed and trusted
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