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pubmed:otherAbstract |
PIP: For a course teaching western child health care to refugee Khmer mothers relocated to the U.S., the class content, process, teaching materials and evaluation are described. An average of 8 women attended each of 4 classes, 2-3 hr long, taught by nurse practitioners and an interpreter. They ranged in age from 27-48, with 2-6 children. Class outlines included: Class 1) taking temperatures, pediatrician visits, immunizations; Class 2) common childhood diseases in U.S., folk remedies, Western treatments including home remedies; Class 3) preventing accidents from burns, falls, cars, poisons, drowning and electricity; Class 4) milestones in growth and development to 5 yr, child stimulation activities. Each class was followed by a question and answer period to evaluate students. So problems included difficulty in reading thermometers, resistance against changing some traditional treatments, unfamiliarity with certain concepts such as specificity of immunizations for given diseases or medical prescription of antibiotics (drugs were available without prescription in Cambodia). Khmer mothers' concepts of child developmental milestones correlated well with western ideas. A cultural characteristic of these women that hampered evaluation was their habit of answering questions in the affirmative: Cambodians do not ask or respond to open-ended or multiple choice questions, for fear of offending the questioner. Another problem was the use of a set curriculum, without sufficiently incorporating students' own cultural health care practices into the discussion. It was felt that Khmer mothers developed a basic understanding of western health care practices.
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