HCA/230 Week 2 Cultural Communication

Many Hispanics patients seem to be targeted with obstacles while using health care facilities in the U.S. Many health care providers also deal with these obstacles while attempting to treat Hispanic. The use of healthcare services has a lesser number of patients in Hispanics because the bulk of the problem is the language barrier and cultural differences which sometimes leads to false assumption or even the physician completely biased. “Language and culture are by no means the only factors that may act as a barrier. In order to enlighten care providers, as to the potential pitfalls that may exist, there is a need to explore the different factors in the creation of the barriers” (Scheppers, 2005). Many Hispanics do not have health insurance which usually prevents the majority of Hispanic people from receiving health care. The language barrier and the inability to speak English sometimes prevent Hispanic patients from communicating with his or her physician. Hispanic women get very little to no healthcare at all particularly prenatal care than any other ethnic group. “Results also showed that Mexican American pregnant teenagers are at particularly high risk regarding prenatal care due to a combination of structural and cultural factors” (Alcalay, 2011). The major challenge for physicians is a big rise of the variety of how cultural factors sometimes influence the way patients’ understand his/her medical problems. The lack of Hispanics speaking English jeopardizes communication between the patient and the health care provider. Most instructions and messages are communicated by mouth, and many Hispanics feel embarrassed because they could not speak or understand English. The relationship between the physician and the Hispanic patient is problematic because of social differentials by inequality on institutional levels,