¶ … Negotiating Cross-Cultural Issues at the End of Life The clinical problem and dearth of research which led to the study was directly connected to the fact that there was a clear understanding that not enough clinicians had cultural competency, particularly with patients receiving end of life care, but there wasn't a clear sense of how to fix this. The fundamental issue at stake was how cultural competency could improve end of life care and the services which needed to be available to clinicians in order to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. As the researchers assert, "Thus the risk for cross-cultural misunderstandings surrounding care at the end of life is also increasing. Studies have shown cultural differences in attitudes toward truth telling, life-prolonging technology, and decision-making styles at the end of life" (Kagawa-Singer & Blackhall, 2001). These notions illuminate clearly the need for the study and the relevancy of the overall research problem.

Moreover, the researchers were able to establish the significance of the study by clarifying how end of life care is truly such a difficult time for truly so many patients and their families. It can be an absolutely terrifying experience and the cultural traditions that people are used to can be truly powerful in making people feel safe and comforted. It can also make the clinician feel like they're providing...

Human suffering can be high at the end of life; there's not just the pain that is so prevalent, but there's the uncertainty of the unknown. Allowing patients to engage in cultural or religious traditions allows them to feel a sense of reassurance and can also provide some comfort for family members who are suffering as well. Too many clinicians forget the suffering experienced by relatives during end of life care.
The purpose of the study was to determine what the best way in which patients and clinicians can best navigate some of the more pressing and difficult issues in cross-cultural care; furthermore, the study sought to illuminate what some of the issues were. For instance, some of the research questions that the study was designed to answer was as follows, as can be inferred from reading the article: what are the primary issues and challenges in cross cultural care during the end of a patient's life? What are some of the cross-cultural issues which emerge for relatives of a patient during the end of life period? What are the best ways to assist clinicians in learning how to identify these issues? What are the most effective means of confronting these issues overall in an immediate, detailed and sensitive fashion?

Questions like these were specific and nuanced and helped to inform the study while assisting in the…