Acupuncture and Herbal Remedies
that affect health care professionals are discussed in the following sections.
Temporal Relationships Temporal relationships refers to people’s worldview in terms of time. These perceptions of time vary among cultures. In the West, time tends to be seen as quantitative elements of past, present, and future and is measured in units that reflect the march of progress. It is logical, sequential, and present focused, moving with incremental certainty toward a future. In the East, time feels like it has unlimited continuity, and it does not have a defined boundary. Birth and death are not such absolute ends because the universe continues, and humans, though changing form, continue as part of it.
Some cultures are present oriented, and others focus on the past or future. Time perspective affects our health behaviors and expectations of health care behavior. In general, people in the West understand that healthy behaviors in the present will affect our health in the future, and future- oriented people are willing to make sacrifices now for future benefits. Present-focused people are not willing to make sacrifices for the future and engage in behaviors to satisfy their immediate desire regardless of the long-term consequences. Future-oriented individuals place value on getting screenings and preventive measures for future payoffs. Present-oriented cultures, including American Indians and African Americans, may see living in the moment as the priority and are less willing to forgo immediate pleasures for future benefits. Cultures that are past oriented tend to value elders and honor traditions. For example, the Asian culture is generally past oriented, and they value and perform traditional healing practices, such as acupuncture and herbal remedies.
Another component of time related to health care is expectations related to punctuality. Some cultures are very punctual, and people in these groups (for example, people with a Polish culture) will arrive for appointments on time. Others are less rigid and will arrive around the time of the appointment. Some clinics who serve cultures who have less rigidity around time have stopped making appointments and changed to seeing patients on a first-come, first-served basis.
Space (Proxemics) Another variable across cultures is perception of space, or proxemics, which includes interpersonal distance and boundaries. North Americans tend to prefer a large amount of space, and Europeans tend to stand more closely together when talking and are accustomed to smaller personal spaces (LeBaron, 2003).
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