Families With Terminally Ill Children
Culture shock is
“a relatively short-term feeling of disorientation, of discomfort due to the
unfamiliarity of surroundings and the lack of familiar cues in the environment”
(Martin & Nakayama 2013). This definition comes to mind when I think of
families who have just discovered that their child is terminally ill. To
further my research of how the diagnosis of terminally ill children affects
families was done through my visit to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
along with talking to some other families. All of these families fall into the
culture of, “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that
characterizes an institution or an organization” (Merriam-Webster). When I
visited St. Jude I noticed that all of the families had a sense of hope and
could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of always talking to a
family who could share a success story I talked with a man who had said “even
though my own daughter did not win her battle against cancer, I know that all
of the research done for her is going to someday save hundreds of children and
that is a victory to me” (Anonymous).
At St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital, morale and hope are always high. The St. Jude team
is always coming up with ways for these children to know that they are going to
grow up and do great things. See the below video where the children of St. Jude
tell us what they want to be when they grow up.
 |
| http://www.stjude.org They hold a red carpet walk for everyone who attends the St. Jude prom. |
Every little girl
dreams of going to prom in high school and always needs the perfect dress. This
dream does not come as easy for children with childhood cancer as it does for
children who do not. To keep this dream alive St. Jude holds a prom for those
who are old enough and all of the dresses and tuxes are donated for the kids to
wear. This is a great example of keeping cultural norms for some children and
introducing a culture to others who are not familiar with prom.
A special story that I
have been following throughout this research is of a beautiful young girl
named, Katelyn. Near the beginning of this year Katelyn was diagnosed with a
rare form of childhood cancer and is now at the Omaha Children’s Hospital. This
family’s life changed completely: from being a normal family to being told that
their precious daughter has cancer. This girl’s biggest worry this past week
was that the Easter bunny would not be able to find her at the hospital,
although the Easter bunny did just that! This situation is a great example of
being immersed in the culture of the hospital but trying to keep life as normal
as possible.
When you think of
families that have terminally ill children, you would not typically place them
in their own culture. As I researched further into this so-called “culture” I
found that it really made sense because they do have so much in common. The
static-dynamic dialect at times comes to my mind suggesting “people and
relationships are constantly in flux, responding to various personal and contextual
dynamics” (Martin & Nakayama 2013). These families and children are
constantly coming into contact with different nurses, doctors, and therapists
forming so many new relationships and taking all of these different people
along with them on their medical journey.
References:
Anonymous. (February 2014). Interview.
Culture shock. (n.d). In
Merriam-Websters Online Dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture%20shock
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th
ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill
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