conduct and analyze an interview with a person who has experienced a serious illness.
Interview Assignment – 24% of course grade
To improve the quality of medical services, it is critically important that health care professionals take into account the culture, language, health beliefs, and environmental differences found in patients. As you are learning throughout this class, cultural competence is very important in helping health care professionals effectively treat their patients. Medical anthropology can assist in the understanding of the ways in which people of diverse cultures and belief systems perceive health and illness and respond to various symptoms, diseases, and treatments. The explanatory model of illness is one way to give healthcare professionals knowledge of the beliefs the patient holds about their illness, the meanings they attach to their illness, and their expectations about the treatment of their illness. The goal of the explanatory model is to compare the patient’s perceptions of their illness with the health care provider’s in order to help identify major discrepancies that may cause problems in managing the illness.
For your interview project due this week you will conduct and analyze an interview with a person who has experienced a serious illness. This illness can be acute or chronic. Examples include but are not limited to cancer, multiple sclerosis, depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), lupus, fibromyalgia, and congestive heart failure. You will interview this person using the eight questions proposed by Arthur Kleinman regarding the explanatory model of illness. These questions are:
1) What do you think has caused your illness?
2) Why do you think it started when it did?
3) What do you think your illness does inside your body?
4) How severe is your illness? Will it have a short or long course?
5) What kind of treatment did you think you should receive?
6) What are the most important results you hoped to receive from this treatment?
7) What are the chief problems your illness has caused you?
8) What do you fear most about your illness/treatment?
Once you have collected the answers to these questions, you should analyze the responses in the context of the course learning using the references you listed in the week 3 assignment or other sources as needed.
You should open the paper with a discussion of the interview itself. You should not provide the actual questions and answers, but a detailed summary of the interview. In other words, using the responses to the eight questions, discuss in detail how your interviewee explained their experience of their illness. You should use direct quotes to give voice to their experiences, and to validate your claims on their experiences.
The next section of the paper should be your own analysis of the interview using the learning materials and other sources. Think about the reasons your interviewee explained their experiences the way they did. Was it due to cultural beliefs, social inequalities, stigma, or other factors that we are learning about in class? Make sure to connect their explanations of their illness to the medical anthropology literature.
You should conclude your paper with your own thoughts about the interview and the explanatory model. Just as the healthcare professional uses the explanatory model to determine discrepancies in their perception of illness and the patient’s perception, how did you your perception of their illness compare with theirs? Did they tell you anything surprising or unexpected about how they feel about their illness? Why do you feel that discrepancies in perceptions occurred? Finally, what are your thoughts on the usefulness of the explanatory model? How can it contribute to cultural competency in the healthcare system?
Writing Guidelines
The final paper should be 4-6 pages in length, double-spaced with 12-point font, not including tables or the reference list.
The final paper should include a title page, an introduction, a thesis statement, a body, a conclusion, and a reference list.
Readability
Your paper should use correct grammar, effective topic sentences and transitions, an organized and clear flow, limited use of quotations, and synthesis of information using your own words. It should incorporate references.
Citation and Reference Style
Your paper should be written in APA style (7th edition).
This assignment will use Turnitin to check for academic integrity. Please review the Turnitin information in your syllabus for more details.
