HUCL1101: Exploring Elements of Spanish Culture in Healthcare

This report, prepared for HUCL1101, delves into the influence of cultural elements on healthcare practices, with a specific focus on Spain. It examines key aspects of Spanish culture, including family patterns, communication styles, religious beliefs, and death and dying practices, to understand their impact on healthcare delivery and workplace diversity. The report highlights the differences in family structures, communication methods, and religious perspectives, emphasizing the importance of cultural sensitivity in healthcare settings. Through an analysis of these elements, the report concludes that a comprehensive understanding of cultural nuances is essential for effective healthcare delivery and the promotion of a diverse and inclusive workplace. The report also emphasizes the importance of understanding the impact of these cultural elements on the workplace. The report concludes by stressing the importance of considering all of these aspects to provide effective healthcare, as well as to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Role concept in health care

Elements of Culture 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Elements of Culture....................................................................................................................1
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................2

Elements of Culture 2
Introduction
Culture is defined as a combination of symbols, language, beliefs and artefacts. The
diversity in a culture can be due to the ideas and symbols used by people. The other factors
that can lead to discrimination are the values, beliefs and language defined by the people in
the society. The other components that can cause diversity are tools and technology used and
some informal factors. In this report a detail discussion is done on the elements that play an
important role in the culture of Spain.
Elements of Culture
There are various elements of culture that need to be addressed to deal with diversity at
workplace. In this report the four main elements that are discussed by Spain culture are
family patterns, communication style, death patterns and religion belief. Some of the
elements are cognitive elements that are norms and beliefs that change from one culture to
another, symbol is one of the elements that are the gestures that differ from one society to
other, and language is another component that helps in understanding the aspects and
perception of a person regarding their culture.
 Family Patterns in Spain- The family model in Spain differs from other culture due
to demographic changes and socioeconomic structure of the society. The number of
marriages that are allowed also differs from culture to culture. As in Spain, the sharp
decline has been observed in marriage ratio and is fluctuating day by day. The age of
marriage is also differing from culture to culture. Thus clear understanding is
required otherwise it can lead to conflicts (Szécsényi-Nagy, et. al, 2015). The fact
families in Spain follow t nuclear customs that improves social and financial support.
It has become important in the past decade as the extended families are not the part of
Spain customs. They mostly live in nuclear families, individually and independently.
The culture of Spain states that there should be less families with less children.
 Religion and belief- It is not possible to fix some values and norms as it differs from
one person to another. Spain is a Roman country with 95% of the population as
Roman Catholic. They are widely diverse in nature and are directly or indirectly
linked with the social relations with different religious of a person and moral values
are also linked with it. Norms can either be formal or informal. The formal norms are
those that are strictly designed and need to be followed anyhow, it includes criminal
laws, traffic rules and behavioural codes (Spigel, 2017). The informal norms differ
from person to person, and can be changed according to the individual’s behaviour.
The values and norms of an organisation differ due to presence of employees from
entirely different culture. For example, during holy week in Spain people walk
barefoot which is seen as a symbol of penitent (Study, 2017). Other such case could
be, like in US people generally talk to each other while standing at the distance of
three to four feet, while in other countries like Italy, France and Spain they feel
uncomfortable while talking to a person who is standing three to four feet apart.

Elements of Culture 3
 Communication Style- It is one of the important elements of the culture. It is the
only medium through which one person communicate with other. It is a system of
words and symbols that support a person to share their ideas and communicate with
each other. It is not only about verbal language that helps in communicating. It also
covers the body language, slang used or common phrases that are especially used in
some specific culture. For example, English is a common language that is spoken in
many counties; still the slang and phrases differ from one country to other. This leads
to culture differences among people and reflects different understanding by people of
different culture (Thompson, 2017). The symbols used are also a part of language. It
includes the gestures, signs and objects that are used by an individual while
communicating with each other. Symbols is a medium that supports a person to
understand the feeling of the other one as it includes clues and experiences that need
to judged. Symbols are basically used to convey some message so that people from
different culture understands it directly (Lee, 2015). It helps to remove the diverse
culture from the organisation by allowing employees to share their perception and
exchange their ideas.
 Death and dying practices – every country have different funeral traditions, the
Spanish culture follows the tradition of rapid burial or interment of dead body
(Robertson, 2018). In Spain, after a person’s dies, the first right is given to family
members that allow them to communicate with the dead body for the last moment.
Then local police authority is then called to have a contact with dead body. Once that
is done family or relative choose funeral director so that assistance could be taken in
a proper way. Once all the arrangement is done for the funeral, the dead body is
transferred to chapel rest. The lean of words are carried at the time of funeral. Thus
these methods differ from one culture to another. After that the body is transferred
from chapel to the cemetery for the funeral.(Danquah, 2014).
Conclusion
It can be concluded, that culture is composed of different forms of behaviour and
social attitude. Thus it in report, some of the basic element of the Spain culture is discussed
like the ideas, values, customs and beliefs that make a person comfortable. Thus, it can be
concluded that culture links up all the ideas and ways to create a unique way of living
differently. In tis report, four elements, that exist in the culture of Spain are identified and
analysed in different forms like communication style, religion beliefs, and death and family
patterns.

Elements of Culture 4
References
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emotional intelligence levels in service delivery: A banking service provider
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Lee, W. C. (2015). Culture and classification: An introduction to thinking about ethical issues
of adopting global classification standards to local environments. Knowledge
Organization, 42(5), 302-307.
Lumen. (2017). Elements of Culture. Retrieved from
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/elements-of-culture/.
Robertson, R. (2018). Social theory, cultural relativity, and the problem of globality.
In Sociology of Globalization (pp. 61-67). Routledge.
Spigel, B. (2017). The relational organization of entrepreneurial
ecosystems. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(1), 49-72.
Study. (2017). Elements of Culture: Explanation of the Major Elements That Define
Culture. Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/elements-of-culture-
definitions-and-ideal-real-culture.html
Szécsényi-Nagy, A., Brandt, G., Haak, W., Keerl, V., Jakucs, J., Möller-Rieker, S., ... &
Osztás, A. (2015). Tracing the genetic origin of Europe's first farmers reveals insights
into their social organization. Proc. R. Soc. B, 282(1805), 20150339.
Thompson, J. D. (2017). Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative
theory. Routledge.

Elements of Culture 5
Appendix