THE USE OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN DEALING WITH CULTURAL MINORITY-GROUPS

Minority peoples like the Romanies have divergent cultures. Typical cu ltural aspects for medical personnel to consider would include greetin gs and other communication, family and social support, dressing and ha bits of cleanliness, marriage and sexuality, honor, and other issues o f importance to any human being. Some minority cultures have no geogra phic boundaries but they still may adopt the lifestyles of the country they live in. Physicians have to reckon with these different cultural patterns when dealing with patients. Patients must be treated equally at the same time when their personal needs require individual conside ration. This consideration is reflected in both verbal and non-verbal communication with the other. Both the sender and the receiver of a me ssage would need to know of the other. Minority groups tend to know mo re about the majority groups than vice versa. Most health care provide rs belong to the majority group and would be expected to learn more ab out the other. Problem-based learning can help students to understand attitudes of minority patients (like the Romanies) and handle the situ ation. In this instance, the students collected theory base from exist ing legal, cultural, and other resources and interviewed a Romany woma n to verify that the information pertaining to the female case was cor rect. This combination of theory and experience was considered useful in preparing a case presented to a seminar with 116 medical and dental students in 1994. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.