Confronting ‘‘Culture’’ in Medicine’s ‘‘Culture of No Culture’’

Janelle Taylor’s paper, Confronting “Community” in Medicine’s “Culture of No Culture,” highlights the forms in which medicine has built culture as something foreign to itself. Medicine, on the other hand, is a highly specific and ritualized culture that differs depending on the historical period and geographical area. Taylor investigates a variety of topics related to medicine and history. A program for medicine in schools has been structured in such a manner that it addresses cultural literacy in the subject that students cover when doing their coursework. However, medical students have not taken this aspect seriously as they believe it to be quite distinct, and do not require cultural competence. Taylor argues that this is a situation that is supposed to change by since medical knowledge is not mutually exclusive of culture. Further, Taylor first examines medicine as a “culture of no culture,” before reconstructing medical competence (Taylor, 2003).In general, Taylor’s article revolves around the themes of medicine and culture.

One of the noteworthy aspects of the article is the author’s use of credible sources. Taylor uses a variety of sources to document his arguments about his central theme. This is a good aspect for article as it provides the readers with an opportunity to verify Taylor’s claims and also read further on the subject. The other noteworthy aspect is the organization of the article which makes it easy for a reader to follow through. For example, the article has and abstract, introduction, body paragraphs that have subtopics as well as a conclusion. The organization makes it easier for the reader to follow through the argument. Indeed, the use of credible sources and organization of the article come out as the main noteworthy aspects of the article.

Despite these significant noteworthy aspects of the article, there are some deficient points that need to be addressed. Firstly, the article is based on Taylor’s personal reflections about the central theme, and this may result to bias. Consequently, Taylor has not provided the readers’ with an explanation of how this bias was addressed resulting to deficiencies. The other deficiency from the article is the apparent lack of future direction for other studies. Taylor fails to provide recommendation for future studies, and this leaves other researchers interested in the subject with various questions. If these aspects are addressed, then the article will be better.

Possible questions that the article does not address include; what is the relationship between medicine and culture? How does culture shape the way in which medicine is practiced? How can medical schools ensure their students gain culturally competent skills? In what ways can physicians ensure that they are providing culturally competent services? In general, these are some of the questions I feel the article does not address.

The ideas that I contemplate would modify the focus of the article would include the redesigning of the article to include a scientific aspect that can supplement Taylor’s personal reflections. I would design a study that looks at the experiences of various doctors with culture so that I can examine the questions I believe are not addressed in the article. This would result to notable strengths that would make the article more reliable since the arguments will be based on scientific findings supplemented by personal reflections, and I contend that this would change the direction of the article.

Reflection

Taylor, J. S. (2003). Confronting ”culture” in medicine’s ”culture of no culture”. Academic Medicine, 78(6), 555-559.