Anthropology in Nursing

Anthropology and Nursing
Introduction
Anthropology is the study of humans and human behavior and societies in the past and
present.Deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological
characteristics,and social customs and beliefs of humankind. In summary

anthropology is science of humans and their works.
Leininger argued that anthropology and nursing were “two worlds to blend”. The
difference lies in this: anthropology is solely an academic discipline — a structured
approach to the search for knowledge; nursing, however, is both a discipline and a
human services profession. As a discipline, the latter’s objective is to build a science of
nursing — a systematic and rigorous structure of enquiry regarding the health related
aspects of human interaction with the environment. But as a profession, nursing is a
highly practical and well defined service role for delivering care to patients
Thus, because most teaching in a school of nursing is to clinicians, anthropological

understandings must be “translated” by the anthropologist so they are relevant to
patient care. The challenge in this translation process lies not only in discovering how
to make concrete, practical suggestions out of abstract concepts, but also how to
introduce anthropology as a scientific discourse within which such concepts form part
of a system of ideas, methods, data, and rather unique ways at looking at the world so
that practicing nurses can routinely use anthropological understandings in a
disciplined rigorous way as they engage in their professional duties.
Similarities Between Nursing and Anthropology
Much of anthropology has been concerned with shared beliefs, values, and behavior.
Similarly, nursing practice addresses normal growth and development, wellness
promotion and health education. During illness, the concern of nursing is in the client's
behavioral response, and in enhancing modification of patterns of daily living to
promote a return to a normal lifestyle.
In a hospital setting, concerns of nursing are daily patterns of living which clients
normally do for themselves: food, elimination, rest, sleep, diversions, and interpersonal
relationships. When illness occurs, factors influenced by cultural patterns such as
dependency, pain, fatigue, fear, personal physical care, diet modification, and stigma
are the purview of nursing
Basic Conceptual Approaches
Nursing and anthropology share a commitment to holism. Anthropology, in so far as it

emphasizes the holistic study of human behavior, offers nursing and other fields
information not available from any other discipline. Nursing incorporates theory on the
connection between the affective, cognitive, and physical domains of health and illness,
promoting the consideration of the environment, family, and individual in health, illness,
and recovery. More than other professions, nursing is committed to the total care of
the patient which parallels the anthropological study of humankind.
Application To Academic And Professional
As we said earlier the difference between anthropology and nursing is that

anthropology is solely a discipline, while nursing is a discipline and a service profession.
However, anthropology is an academic discipline with a professional aspect. The aim of
academic disciplines is to know, and their theories are descriptive and explanatory in
nature. Fields that apply research are more correctly termed applied disciplines, or
applied branches of academic disciplines, rather than professional disciplines, which
have prescriptive theories. For example, the nurse who deals with alleviating pain may
choose from several alternatives, including talking to the patient to decrease anxiety,
giving a back massage, or giving an ordered medication.
Anthropologists who teach nursing students believe they translate anthropological
principles in systematic and applicable ways; most, however, neglect the distinction of
nursing as both an academic and professional discipline. The objectives of cross-cultural
nursing courses are to help students make assessments and interventions which are
astute and culturally appropriate, such as caring behaviors which conform to the
patients' ethnosemantic description of what care "should be" in that particular
subculture. Through translated anthropological perspectives, nursing students are
taught to understand, and implicitly to accept, the sociocultural conditions which
produce variation in life and in health. The anthropological conceptual perspectives
which have been translated to nursing emphasize the relativist tradition of
philosophical idealism which values people's ideas, health beliefs, and value
orientations. This is an appropriate domain for professional nursing
Contributions Of General Anthropology To Nursing
Theoretical formulations
As a professional discipline, nursing uses the results of research and selects theories
from other sciences on the basis of their explanatory power in relation to the
phenomena nurses diagnose and treat.Elements in a discipline can be extended by
incorporating additional knowledge or can be narrowed or refined as more precise
conceptualizations become possible. Information from other disciplines is
incorporated into nursing knowledge and is transformed by the unique view of nursing
science. Anthropological theory has been adopted and integrated into all four elements
of nursing's disciplinary matrix. Examples of nursing theorists and theories are
Florence Nightingale - Environment theory, Hildegard Peplau - Interpersonal theory,
Virginia Henderson - Need Theory.
Human Nature
Nursing models describe human nature in terms of individual attributes, wholeness,
and integrity. Sociocultural anthropology conceptualizes humans through a focus on
ethnocentrism and cultural relativism which posit differing ways of viewing human
interactions and denote the perspective from which characteristics are interpreted. In
nursing, this denotes whether data are interpreted from the perspective of the
client or the nurse.
Environment
In nursing models the term environment refers to all the influences affecting the
behavior and development of people. Here the major contribution of anthropology has
been the concept of culture. Basic nursing texts address cultural affiliation as the
background from which client values, beliefs, and practices can be anticipated, but
nursing has also extended the concept of culture in cultural assessment models
Assessment guides identify major cultural domains that are important to nurses in
clinical situations or at the community level and delineate relevant values, beliefs, and
behaviors. Cultural assessment models in nursing deal with three major aspects: what
data to elicit, why it is important, and how to obtain it.
Health The concept of health in nursing has been enriched by the disease illness
distinction described in medical anthropology. Disease is defined in terms that are
thought to be objective and quantifiable. Illness, however, is a personal phenomenon
concerning an individual's altered perception of self. Health is perceived differently by
the client and by the health professional, and the physiologically based definition of
disease is inadequate for the discipline of nursing. These perspectives are reconciled
through the concepts of illness and disease into the broader construct of health, which
identifies areas of practitioner and client congruence and incongruence and posits
different intervention strategies in these situations.
Nursing This element consists of nursing diagnosis and interventions, the latter
influenced by anthropological theory. The nurse as mediator or liaison dates to 1929 .
Along these lines, Brink thinks of mediation in the relationships among the patient,
doctor, and nurse as analogous to Freilich's "natural triad." The construct "culture
broker" is applied to several roles which link various sectors of society to health care
delivery. As a nursing intervention, culture brokerage involves the nurse mediating
between clients and health professionals. The unique perspective of nursing is
enhanced by the contribution of anthropology to important constructs of this kind.
Anthropology Provides Theory For Nursing Research
The literature contributed by nurse anthropologists demonstrates that anthropological

theory guides research on client belief systems, care in multicultural context, and
nursing as a subculture. The majority of the research on client belief systems consists of
descriptive accounts concerning the beliefs and practices of specific groups
Other investigations have focused on folk health beliefs of a specific group regarding
specific conditions such as wind illness, evil eye, hypertension, and vitamin use.
Contributions of the studies include (a) the integration of emic ( perspective of social
studied group) and etic ( perspective of observer) perspectives to derive a complete
understanding of a particular syndrome, (b) the importance of diversity within cultures
when investigating traditional beliefs, (c) the importance of generational depth in
studies of immigrant populations
The Contribution Of Nursing To Anthropology
The education of nurses in anthropology has been important for both disciplines. It has
allowed nursing to profit from anthropological theory and research findings.
Anthropology, in turn, has benefited from the understanding of health care delivery and
applied physiology that nurses bring to anthropology.Nursing Constructs for
Anthropological Theory Caring has been a major theoretical focus in cross-cultural
nursing research. Utilizing research on the Papago Indians, Aamodt developed the
concept of care along four dimensions: (a) the fit in a cultural system of health and
healing, (b) the applicability of a multicultural environment for care, (c) the power of
belief, and (d) changes in mechanisms of care during the life cycle of human beings.
These dimensions of care provide a basis for cross-cultural investigations and illustrate
ways in which "taking care of' is a culturally relevant domain that organizes human
experience. In these and other ways, the concept of care is viewed as the central focus
of nursing behaviors, processes, and intervention modalities.
Projections For The Future
There are striking similarities between nursing and anthropology in research topics,
methods, conceptual approaches, and perspective. These features point to a natural
alliance which was developed by certain anthropologists since mid century and by
contemporary nurse anthropologists. Nursing benefited from the social sciences and
anthropology and has emerged with models for illness and health care different from
medicine. The nursing paradigm itself reflects a unique body of knowledge. Financial
support affects the development of disciplines and the research that is conducted.
Funding depends on the social environment as well as the ability of discipline leaders to
assess societal priorities and influence legislative bodies and funding sources. Medicine
has been especially successful in attracting private and public funds in this century.
Medical anthropologists have been drawn to the prestige of medicine and to the
availability of research funding in medicine. In comparison to medicine, nursing has had
limited resources and fewer well-prepared researchers.
References
pdfs.semanticscholar.org
https://www.annualreviews.org
http://sfaajournals.net
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org

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Anthropology and Nursing

characteristics,and social customs and beliefs of humankind. In summary

Thus, because most teaching in a school of nursing is to clinicians, anthropological

Similarities Between Nursing and Anthropology

Basic Conceptual Approaches

Nursing and anthropology share a commitment to holism. Anthropology, in so far as it

Application To Academic And Professional

As we said earlier the difference between anthropology and nursing is that

Contributions Of General Anthropology To Nursing

Anthropology Provides Theory For Nursing Research

The literature contributed by nurse anthropologists demonstrates that anthropological

The Contribution Of Nursing To Anthropology

Projections For The Future

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