Starting Out

I'd like to use my first post to share an example of potential cultural conflicts that I noticed with a student who visited my office. She is in her third year of medical school and is starting to have difficulties with time management, which is affecting her studies and ability to do well in her internship. When reviewing her mentor critiques recently, there were comments that gave an impression that this student was withdrawn, somewhat uncooperative and overall unenthused. This was not my experience with this student at all, and so in our conference, I spoke with her about my concern of the most recent comments. Looking just as surprised, she explained to me the events that this mentor was addressing and I found that her cultural habits, were really the culprit of the incorrect perception of this student. This student is Haitian, has a lot of responsibility to her family whom is still in Haiti. Instead of getting financial assistance from her family, she sends a portion of her loan monies home to support them. This means she needs to supplement that loss income and tutors to make money. Often times she is exhausted when she goes in for her internship and admits to being less talkative. She also mentioned that her mentor is a white male whom she feels intimidated and threatened by, a result of having many negative interactions with white males in Haiti. Her cultural assumptions about him, are having an effect on her interactions with him, and although she understand he is her mentor, she is distrustful of him as well.

What I took away from this situation is the often subconscious ways cultural conflicts impact perceptions. Neither the student nor the mentor realize that their perceptions are based on things that can culturally be explained because both are under false impressions of the other's rigid personality. In our meeting I encouraged the student to speak with her mentor about the difficulties she is having due to family obligations and how supporting them is more than just an option, it is a duty. I also advised her that it is ok to trust her mentor, and that she just opened up about her situation, there would be a greater sense of understanding and trust. I could still tell she was hesitant about speaking with her mentor, but she left my office promising that she would. I am eagerly awaiting our next appointment to see if she does indeed try to lessen the impact of her cultural conflict.