Dr. Tish Smyer Introduces Section 3 Concepts We begin this section looking at the concept of Generic or Folk (lay) Care System and the Professional Care System.

Folk Care System refers to:

"culturally learned and transmitted, indigenous (or traditional), folk (home based) knowledge and skills used to provide assistive, supportive, enabling, or facilitative acts.  These acts are toward or for another individual, group, or institution with evident or anticipated need to ameliorate or improve a human lifeway, health condition (or wellbeing), or to deal with handicaps and death situations" (Leininger, 1991).

Traditional ceremonies that seek to promote balance and well being among Native American Elders are:

The Professional Care System refers to:

"formally taught, learned, and transmitted professional care, health, illness, wellness, and related knowledge and practice skills that prevail in professional institutions usually with multidisciplinary personnel to serve consumers" (Leininger, 1991).

Professional institutions with multidisciplinary personnel to services consumers would be:

As care providers, exploring and finding the "conflict in" or "compatibility of" care expressions or practices within the Folk System of Care and the Professional System of Care leads to better nursing care.

Walter "Hap" Carlin from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and  a  certified Chemical Dependency Counselor joins Madonna Blue Horse Beard in elaborating on expectations of the Professional System of Care and the actual life experiences of Native Americans in need of health care.

While the health care worker was able to identify specific incompatibilities related to economics, you can see, these differences can add to the frustration, confusion, and conflict of the client as well as the health care providers who are not aware of the incompatibility of specific aspects of the professional and folk system of care.  However, another aspect needs to be explored and recognized and that is "Cultural Values". 

Cultural Values refer to:
"Powerful, persistent, and directive forces that give meaning, order, and direction to the individual or group's thinking, actions, decision, and lifeways, and usually over a span of time"(Leininger, 1991).

Thank you Hap.  These practices are not widely recognized in the professional care system.  We can see that fostering and preserving care practices like those describe by Hap can benefit the Native American Elder.  Another concept we need to consider aside from culture care preservation and maintenance is culture care accommodation or negotiation.

Listen to Madonna as she relates the stressors that enter the life of the Native American on a rural reservation.  In what ways can we accommodate or negotiate nursing actions which could address these stressors?

Thank you Madonna.  The use of alcohol has posed a major health problem in the Native American population.  As health care workers we have to ask ourselves "What areas for restructuring or repatterning can we address particularly as it relates to the Native American Elder?" Listen to Hap and Madonna as they discuss patterns of alcohol use in the Native American population, then view powerpoint presentation about culture care repatterning and restructuring.

This ends Section 3 of Module 1.  To review, we have defined and elaborated on the following concepts.
 

Thank you for your time and attention.  Please be sure to take the Post-Test for Section 3.

Proceed to Section 4