Biracial and Bicultural Patients
Essentials of Cultural Competence in Pharmacy
Practice: Chapter 10 Notes
Chapter Author: Dr. Norma Kiser-Larson
Learning Objectives
1. Identify common biracial cultures.
2. Articulate unique challenges facing individuals who are
biracial and bicultural.
3. Understand unique family dynamics when working with
patients who have more than one ethnic or racial
background.
Some Key Terms
 Most texts focus on culture and ethnicity. Race is rarely
included or only briefly mentioned.
 Race: There are many definitions!
 Spector: “The concept of race reflects self-identification by
people according to the race or races with which they closely
identify.”
 Giger and Davidhizar: “People of the same race share varying
degrees of similar physical features such as stature, skin color,
hair texture, or blood group.”
More Key Terms…
 Bicultural: mixing of cultures, race, and combination
of races and ethnicity.
 Biracial: (1)A person of one race and cultural heritage
functioning in another culture, such as mainstream
American society; (2) “when an individual crosses two
racial and cultural groups, the individual is considered
‘biracial’”(Giger and Davidhizar)
 Racial identity: what an individual thinks about his or
her race.
 Racial identification: what a person says about his or
her race.
Racial Identity
 Explore strength of identity
 Bicultural identity integration (BII)
 Cultural conflict
 Cultural distance
 Chapter examples:
 the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina
 Aboriginal-Chinese people
 UK-Greek
Biracial Identity Issues
 Identity develops in a context of relationship to others.
 A major issue for biracial people is not feeling accepted by
others.
 To resolve this:
 The process of feeling accepted is smoother when the person feels
accepted by parents and other family members
 Engage in an activity that will make a difference in one’s own life as well
as the lives of others
Cultural Beliefs and Practices with
Pharmaceutical Implications
 U.S. Mainstream Medical System
 Based on
 Allopathic (conventional
medicine)
 Philosophy (scientific method)
 Folk Medicine/Homeopathic
 Natural folk medicine
 Magico-religious folk medicine
 Herbal treatments:
 Corn silk
 Dandelion root
 Eucalyptus
 Ginseng
 Lady slipper plant
 Licorice root
 Peach leaves or mullein roots
 Pine needles
 Red oat tree sap
 Sarsaparilla
 Tobacco
 Wild yellow plum tree bark, mullein
leaves, alum root
Traditional Healing or Ethnocultural
Health Care Therapies (See Table 10-3)
 Acupuncture
 Ayurvedic
 Braucher or Baruch-doctor
 Curanderismo
 Qi gong
 Reiki
 Santeria
Reflection Questions
1. What do you consider to be your heritage? How does this
influence how you interact with others?
2. As a working pharmacist, what biracial and bicultural
individuals are you likely to serve?
3. How will you be prepared to work with individuals with
ethnic and racial backgrounds with which you are
unfamiliar?