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2022-08-04
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Pharmacy Practice & Practice-Based Research
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Copyright (c) 2022 John Rovers, Erin Ulrich
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Some People are Different from You: A Case Study of a Cultural and Ethical Problem in Global Health
John Rovers
Drake University
Erin Ulrich
Drake University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/iip.v13i2.4919
Keywords: Clinical Ethics; Cultural Body Modifications; Diversities, Cultural; Circumcision, Female; Mission, Medical
Abstract
Pharmacists, student pharmacists, and other healthcare providers are frequent participants on short-term medical service trips (MSTs) to medically underserved areas. Many such MSTs take place in areas like sub-Saharan Africa where cultural beliefs about healthcare and society may be very different from what volunteers from the Global North believe. These cultural divergences may then give rise to ethical problems MST volunteers need to navigate. This case study provides an example of such an ethical problem developing from a difference in cultures – the case of female genital cutting. Often, the ethical training that most MST volunteers receive during their clinical education is inadequate to help them address these kinds of cultural differences and the problems that result. A six-step process to provide MST volunteers with the tools to address such cultural-ethical problems is included.
