The Idea of an Essay, Volume 4

2017 Composition Contest Winnners 3 one another and how they view and solve problems. Like this, people construct a sense of identity and belonging around their culture. Therefore, culture cannot be dealt with lightly. Likewise, Nurses should not passively overlook their patients’ culture. Otherwise, a condescending comment on a cultural practice will most likely come across as a great offense to those who identify with the culture. This is why it is so important to uphold each culture with respect and appreciation. One component that makes a culture unique is its cultural practices and traditions. Practices and traditions usually embody an underlying meaning and certain values that a people group highly esteem. For example, in Filipino culture, when a young person encounters an elderly person, the younger one takes the right hand of the elder with his or her right hand and touches the back of the elders hand to his or her forehead. Though such a practice is a typical greeting, it also represents a sign of respect and an act of blessing towards the elderly. Other cultural practices may consist of the heavy usage of herbs in countries like China and Japan to promote health and long life. However, rarely do people realize that there are cultural practices that put one’s health in serious risk. American Indians smoke for cultural reasons. Some South Koreans are forced to drink multiple times a week due to cultural pressure. Many Koreans put themselves in a greater risk of gastric cancer because it is normal for them to double dip their spoons into a communal soup. Hispanic parents consider a fat child as a healthy child so they overfeed their children even as toddlers, which results in obesity and causes multiple health issues in later years. Such practices and customs may appear to exist for legitimate reasons; however, they involve significant drawbacks concerning one’s health. But this is what they have been doing for all this time! What they do is what makes their culture! Yes, that is true. However, if those practices compromise one’s health, they are certainly problematic. Nurses must address the potential dangers that may arise from those practices. Smoking is one of the habits that many people came to love and enjoy. However, the situation changes when smoking is practiced not for enjoyment, but for the sake of cultural conformity. Some American Indian populations integrate smoking into their culture. Dr. Felicia Schanche Hodge, a professor in the School of