An ethnographic nursing study of household health care roles of Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese/Vietnamese refugee families in the Salt Lake City area

Household health care roles in two Southeast Asian refugee cultural groups, the Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese/Vietnamese were examined using an exploratory and descriptive ethnography approach. The purposes of the study included: descriptions of health care roles; a comparative analysis of the variability of health care roles and practices between the two groups, and a longitudinal evaluation focusing on the complexity of family health care dynamics and influencing sociocultural components. Results indicated that the oldest son and the mother occupy the primary roles in the families' health care systems. Comparatively, this authoritarian role of the oldest son seems to be diminishing in the Vietnamese families as compared with the ethnic Chinese/Vietnamese. Differences between the families' health practices were also examined. The refugees are showing adaptation to American health care by accepting its pluralistic nature and electrically selecting the right health care combination for themselves and their family.