Cultural Competence | Covid 19 Impacts

Best Practices for Testing Muslim-American Patients:

Testing for COVID-19 (PCR and Blood Serotyping)
- For language-limited patients, make sure there is another HC professional present who understands the client's language, and can effectively communicate the testing process.
- While administering the blood test, making sure the HC professional present is of the same sex.
- While administering blood tests, make sure that the right hand is used to take blood, the left hand is seen as "unclean" traditionally.
- Older patients may want family present to explain the testing process, or for support purposes.
Administering Treatment for Hospitalized Patients
- Hospital-administered Muslim patients may want to follow their prayer schedule that they typically adhere to at home. This may be difficult depending on their level of functionality from the disease onset.
- Using the right hand to administer any medication and/or feeding.
- Having the nurse/primary caretaker be the same sex as the patient, as well as any immediate care staff for privacy and modesty purposes.
- Finally, the previous health care experiences for Muslim immigrants are different from what physicians are accustomed to seeing in the United States. These patients typically seek physicians only when they feel symptoms, and perhaps only when symptoms are severe.

Best Practices for Testing Chinese-American Patients:

Testing for COVID-19 (PCR and Blood Serotyping)
- For language-limited patients, make sure there is another HC professional present who understands the client's language, and can effectively communicate the testing process.
- No direct cultural conflict with blood testing.
- Older patients may want family present to explain the testing process, or for support purposes.
Administering Treatment for Hospitalized Patients
- Physicians should ask explicitly about use of supplements and herbals, because patients often do not think to mention this during medication review
- An emphasis on herbal remedies may be pertinent for the more traditional patients, and while it is important to emphasize the credibility of a holistic medical approach, it is important for the HC professional to take any natural remedies and forms of care into consideration. This may also mean that the patient prefers those forms of care over western medicine, which is the patient's own prerogative.
- Finally, the previous health care experiences of Chinese immigrants are different from what physicians are accustomed to seeing in the United States. These patients typically seek physicians only when they feel symptoms, and perhaps only when symptoms are severe.

For any additional questions regarding testing for COVID-19:

COVID-19 IMPACTS