Course Syllabus
GRNU 334 TR1/ HLTH 210
Exploring Health Care and Culture: Learning Through Immersion in Oaxaca
Spring Semester 2015
March 1-March 9, 2015 with pre and post travel sessions
Faculty: Carol Buck-Rolland, EdD, APRN; Madeline Mann, MSN, APRN
Credits: 3 Credits
Pre-requisites: Graduate Standing and instructor permission/ Application essay required
Class size: Maximum: 12
Course Overview: This course will explore, compare, and contrast current concepts of health
status and health care delivery, including cultural health care practices in Oaxaca, Mexico and
the United States. Students will explore and gain an appreciation for cultural diversity by
exploring the social, psychological, health practices, and historical trajectories of Oaxacan and
U.S. perceptions within the overarching theme of health. Our investigation is collaborative with
Mexican expertise, integrating speakers, presentations and discussions through online and group
field study. Our local community situation and travels to Oaxaca will expose us to teachers,
activists, migrants, health care practitioners, and humanitarian enthusiasts with diverse
backgrounds enabling collective and individual insight and reflection. By discovering the
ideologies, policies, and practices of culture and health care in cross-cultural contexts, we hope
to better serve, and enable optimal health care to our current and future patients.
Logistics: The immersion experience will include lodging in a homestay in the city of Oaxaca,
permitting close contact with the food and traditions of Oaxaca. Our class days in Oaxaca will
focus on Mexican culture and health care. Observation and participation with health care
providers in Oaxaca City will provide active learning and an increased appreciation of the
Mexican health care system. Additionally, we will spend an overnight in a rural village to gain
first-hand experience with Oaxacan culture and health care practices in remote, rural settings.
We will also gain understanding of the cultural importance of foods and various health care
1
beliefs and practices in Mexico. Pre- and post-travel classes will help to prepare and enhance
our learning, see below for specifics.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Examine historical, environmental, social, and political forces that impact the health of
people living in Oaxaca.
Compare and contrast health care practices and models of health care delivery in Oaxaca,
MX and the U.S. to develop greater awareness and understanding about various practices within
the health care system in Mexico.
Explore the physical, mental and spiritual health of Oaxacan people in a cultural context.
Analyze the complexity of the roles of the health care provider in primary care and public
health through a variety of experiences in urban and rural settings.
Experience, through active participation, health beliefs and the delivery of health care in
urban and rural settings in Oaxaca.
Explore and experience, through active participation, marginalized populations in
Oaxaca, reflecting upon their overall health and wellbeing
Attainment of the above course objectives is facilitated through ongoing and active:
o examination and reflection upon ways of dealing with oppression and domination;
o exploration of one’s own cultural dilemmas while examining dilemmas of others;
o development of a greater understanding of one’s role in a world that is increasingly
interrelated, complex, and fragile.
Teaching Strategies: The course will utilize lecture and discussion formats for individual
classes, both pre-travel and while in Oaxaca. During the pre-travel meetings, language
acquisition in Spanish will be incorporated to insure basic communication for students and
common terms used in the delivery of health care. Online readings and learning activities will be
utilized to enhance the preparatory aspect of the course.
Pre- and Post travel class dates: The pre-travel class meetings are TBA. The post-travel final
class/ fiesta will be planned within 3-4 weeks following our immersion experience.
Required reading: (You will read ONE of the following books)
o Fadiman, Anne. (2012). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child,
her American Doctors & the Collision of Two Cultures. NY: Farrar, Straous & Giroux.
Request/ order the Fadiman book by the ISBN so you get the 2012 edition.
ISBN-13: 978-0374533403
In the event that you have read this book (as most of you have), please choose from the following
and pick ONE to read by mid-February.
o Call, Wendy. (2011) No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global
Economy. Lincoln, NE; University of Nebraska Press.
2
-ORo Kidder, Tracy. (2009) Mountains Beyond Mountains. New York, Random House.
-ORo Thompson, Gabriel. (2007) There is no Jose Here: Following the Hidden Lives of
Mexican Immigrants. NY: Nation Books.
***Additional selected readings and resources posted within Blackboard course***
Online Resources:
Building Cultural Competence:
How is Cultural Competence Integrated in Education?
http://cecp.air.org/cultural/Q_integrated.htm#def
Cultural Competence http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Ca-De/CulturalCompetence.html
US Off. Minor Health: www resources for HCProviders:
https://ccnm.thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/
Oaxaca Information:
Oaxaca Travel information http://www.go-oaxaca.com/overview.html
Casa Hogar Hijos de la Luna http://www.hijosdelaluna-en.org/ we will visit and
volunteer at this wonderful place
Seasons of My Heart (we will do the market tour and day class…wonderful!!)
http://www.seasonsofmyheart.com/cooking_classes_school.html
Good ethnography is an intellectual exorcism in which, forced to take the perspective of the
other, we are wrenched out of our self. We transcend ourselves, and for a brief moment we
wonder who we are, whether we are animals, barbarians or angels, whether all things are really
the same under the sun, whether it would be better if the other were us, or better if we were the
other. (Shweder, 1986, New York Times Book Review, 21: 38)
3
4