Seventeen years as a school nurse in Camden, New Jersey has given me plenty of opportunities to meet families from many countries. There is one mother and son that stand out in my recent experience that speaks to the power of respecting our families’ cultural perspectives.
There is a part of Guatemala where the commonly spoken language is Mam, a Mayan Indian dialect that is not commonly found in Camden. One of my parents and her preschool-age son found themselves resettled in Camden from this region. Spanish was this mother’s second language, and extremely limited at that, so communication, even with a Spanish-speaking translator was very difficult.
The mother sought out my help after a medical leave from work because as she was returning to her factory job, her boss refused to accept her medical excuse note, claiming it was fraudulent. The mother, fearing she was sure to lose her assembly line job, for which she had no sick time, had turned in the release note without understanding that there were several red flags on the note itself. Her employer immediately saw that the note was not dated, it was hand-written and the header of the prescription pad had a new label with the provider information, but the phone number was not working.
Please click here to continue reading: Social Determinants Are Not Just Words
Comments (0)