Week 7:

For this assignment, imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin…..

I work in a children’s hospital and little Nila is from Nigeria. She has a very high fever and I am the head nurse for the ward she is in. The first thing I need to do is research how her culture views modern medicine, then I would consult her family from there. The second thing I would do is find out what her religious beliefs may be. Many people find comfort in their religion, especially when it pertains to matters of health. The third thing I would do would be to familiarize myself with key words and phrases of their native language so that I can communicate with her or anyone in her family that may not speak English. I am sure they would appreciate having a nurse that was trying to communicate with them in such a critical time. The fourth thing that I would do would be to find out what Nigerian families find comforting. Do they like to sing to their sick ones? Do they like to buy them flowers and balloons like we do in America? That way, if I saw something out of the ordinary in the hospital room I would know why. The last thing I would find out would be what kinds of music is found comforting in Nigeria so I could put some on for poor little sick Nila while she is recovering. I know if I were to immigrate to a new country and found myself in a hospital, I would greatly appreciate the nurses taking the time to make me feel at home.