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Encountering Traditional Medicine in Global Health Service

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Global Health and Volunteering Beyond Borders

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Abstract

As a healthcare professional, you are a witness to people at their most vulnerable. Respecting traditional medicine is an extension of validating a patient’s culture and belief system, a practice that ultimately affects healthcare outcomes. The intersection of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine in the United States can serve as a framework for understanding the appeal of traditional medicines globally as well as common concerns from allopathic providers. I want to argue that validation of and collaboration with traditional medicines are precisely what it means to provide service to others through medical missions and that the impact of one’s attitudes toward the values and practices of a people has implications beyond single medical encounters. Validation of traditional medical practices is an affirmation of the patient’s choice to engage in the health management that they believe best suits their needs.

When the practitioner’s own Heart is still, trust is established and contact can be made with the truth in the patient’s Heart. The healer does not impose their will, but assists patients in transforming by themselves.– Stéphane Espinosa [6, 12]

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Change history

  • 09 May 2020

    The quote from Stephanie Espinosa in Pg. 103 has been linked to the two footnotes that are included in the “Suggested Reading” section as

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. And So It Begins, LLC, Chicago, IL, USA

    Alexia C. Croteau-Chonka

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  1. Alexia C. Croteau-Chonka
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Correspondence to Alexia C. Croteau-Chonka .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, IL, USA

    Mildred M.G. Olivier

  2. And So It Begins, LLC, Chicago, IL, USA

    Clarisse C. Croteau-Chonka

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Croteau-Chonka, A.C. (2019). Encountering Traditional Medicine in Global Health Service. In: Olivier, M., Croteau-Chonka, C. (eds) Global Health and Volunteering Beyond Borders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98660-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98660-9_8

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