Know your patient. (Review).

* Patient Diversity: Beyond the Vital Signs, video, 2001, 19 min., CRM Learning (800-421-0833, www.crmfilms.com), purchase $595. Other material: leader guide.

In major cities and outlying suburbs, rural areas and small towns, the face of America is changing rapidly. Record numbers of immigrants from an increasing number of nations pour into this country, almost 150,000 annually since 1990 alone. An estimated 35% of the population of New York City recorded in the 2000 federal census was born outside the United States.

This trend affects us all. If you work in an office, for example, understanding cultural differences may mean getting used to colleagues who interpret time more broadly than you do. If you're in retailing, it may force you to change the mix of products you've always offered. For those of us in healthcare, however, understanding cultural differences could literally mean the difference between successful treatment and losing a patient, as this video so clearly illustrates.

Patient Diversity: Beyond the Vital Signs is the latest in the made-for healthcare series from CRM Learning that includes the highly praised and widely used It's a Dog's World. In a series of almost ER-paced vignettes, the video portrays the interactions of a variety of healthcare workers and patients in typical situations in which the understanding (or misunderstanding) of cultural differences directly affects the outcomes of clinical care.

In one example, a Cambodian mother brings a child with serious respiratory distress into an emergency room. When the boy's hospital gown is removed, however, the staff's attention is diverted by the red welts on both sides of the child's chest. While the male nurse is convinced the boy has been physically abused, an Asian American aide recognizes the welts as the result of "coining," a traditional Southeast Asian healing practice.

In another scenario, a nurse and aide humorously stereotype a histrionic Hispanic patient recovering from surgery, only to find out later that the man was hemorrhaging and in need of emergency surgery. Yet another vignette portrays tne same aide convincing a iai technician to touch an infant he'd complimented in assing the day before to remove the "evil eye." Although extremely skeptical at first, the tech does as asked, and the mother, visibly comported, takes the child home.

The leader's guide provides a brief video synopsis, some background information on cultural diversity, an outline for a two-hour session, and five interesting, if not wildly creative, participant exercises, including a set of case studies for small group discussion. An excellent bibliography and list of related web addresses is also included.

Recommendation

CRM Learning turns out some of the best training videos for healthcare available. The acting is always good, scripts well written, production very professional, and editing first rate. This one is no exception. It's a pleasure to watch. Although it's hard to do this topic justice in only 19 minutes, it's even harder to get healthcare workers to sit still for anything longer. Patient Diversity manages to strike the balance between enough information to get everyone thinking in the right direction and so much information that they start looking at their watches. I would recommend this video as part of a wider program focused on the particular values and beliefs of your patient population.

Contributing writer Kathy Armitage is education and development manager for Salick Heatlhcare Inc. in the Saint Vincents Comprehensive Cancer Center in new York City.

Patient Diversity product rating


Holds viewer interest  ****
Acting/Presenting      ****
Diversity              ****
Production quality     ****
Value of content       ***
Instructional value    ***
Value for the money    ***
Overall rating         ****

Outstanding ****

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NR Not rated (usually not enough information)