Question

Public health workers are offering free measles vaccinations to children. The worker is speaking with the parents of a child and explaining why the vaccination is important. The parents express concerns that the vaccine will interfere with God’s plan, and they refuse to have the child vaccinated. Questions: 1. What are the parents’ beliefs about how health is maintained? 2. How do the theories of health and illness discuss in this chapter apply to this case study? 3. Using the Purnell model for cultural competence, what approach, if any, should the public health workers take to help protect the child by assisting the parents with understanding the need for the vaccination?

Answer 1

1. Considerring just the case study described above the phrase to describe best the parents aproach would be: If it ain't broke, don't fix it". In other words they didn't fully understand the benefits for the immune system in case of vaccination as explained by the health system representative, therefore they would refuse any invasive health approach if it's not a compulsory intervention ( emergency)

2. Health is considered to be the natural structural and functionsl equilibrium that the body has and unless is obvious that in that particular case, the natural adapting capabilities are not sufficient to surpass difficult circumstances, invasive health techniques are not regarded as necessary interventions.

3. Probably by describing in better terms and exemplify how children who were exposed to similar environmental factors or having more or less the same inhereted features experienced difficulties in adapting to given living conditions compared to those who considered vaccination