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Nursing student researching "Health culture" in France


DaniJ
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Hi my name is Dani. I am a 26 year old Nursing student. I am researching facts about the Health Care field and "health culture" in France. I was hoping that anyone could address and many of the following topics:

1.When you are a patient, how do you like to be addressed?

2. Are you comfortable talking with healthcare providers?

3. Are you comfortable with physical eye contact and touch from your healthcare providers?

4. What are some high-risk behaviors that are prevalent in French culture today? (Safety measures, substance use, ect.)

5. What are some common, significant foods eaten by the French population today? Are there any mealtime rituals observed? Foods that are avoided?

6. What is pregnancy like in the life of a French woman? What are some accepted/unaccepted practices relate to fertility and prevention of pregnancy? Beliefs related to pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and the post-birth period?

7. Tell me about French healthcare practices in general: common beliefs related to "why" illness occurs? Illness treatment and prevention? beliefs related to blood transfusions, organ donations, mental illness, self-medication practices, or any use of "things" other than traditional treatment options to treat health problems?

I will be checking in over the next week. Due by Wednesday April 1st :(:(:( as much information as possible is highly appreciated! Thank you sooooooo much for your time!

DaniJ
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You could well finish up with a fish on your back me-thinks [Www]

Just as a matter of interest though. From my experience, unfortunately, is that the French are quite formal and first names are very unusual unless you are friends. We tend to override that when ever we can and some are quite surprised.

The hospital staff tend to say and you listen, until that is the expression "Écoute-moi" is used, and the one time I used it the male nurse was so shocked he did listen to what I had to tell him!

Eye contact is not a problem in any situation for me and never has been.

I have no idea about high risk anything or pregancy, being a bloke.

It sometimes appears that if it moves the French will eat it, but that is said very much 'tounge in cheek'. I don't know of rituals, but food is an important family time when everyone possible will sit together. But, when we first moved over, over 10 years back, the supermarket isles were much shorter when it came to 'ready meals' and breakfast  so called foods than they are now.

A 'good doctor' will not let a patient leave the surgery without at least 4 things on the ordinance. You can go for a blood test in the morning and collect the result in the afternoon and not have to wait a couple of weeks, as per NHS. And when you get an Xray you are presented with the resultant pikkies. When you go to the docs you take them with you. Same with the blood test results.

We have had nowt but good health care treatment and I have possibly had a bit more than my share of seeing it.

Bon
poisson d'avril
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1. My name or vous - although I am not so deeply embedded in French culture to be offended by tu.

2. Yes

3. Yes

4. Solely from what I read about (and therefore highly subjective and probably completely wrong), substance abuse seems relatively common. In big cities this seems to be predominantly controlled or illegal drugs, in the countryside alcohol is widely abused, but seems to result in relatively rare public displays of anti-social behaviour. Smoking is still fairly common despite government attempts to discourage it.

5. More and more there is a move from traditional foods to fast food and less healthy pre-prepared foods. I cite the rise in popularity in establishments like McDonalds and the number of restaurants who rather than prepare food themselves buy in pre-prepared foods as frozen or cook chill.

6 Not competent to reply

7. Not really competent to give a full answer, but some observations:

There have been case of contaminated blood resulting in serious illness or death of the recipient. (But that is not restricted to France).

Where we are in rural France there is still strong support that the pharmacy should remain the only source of medicaments - self medication is therefore restricted. I could well believe this would not apply in cities and large towns.

There seems to be a higher regard for non-Western Traditional cures and homeopathy, acupuncture and other remedies are prescribed by main stream doctors.
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1.When you are a patient, how do you like to be addressed?

I'm not French so informal use of my first name is fine. Having said that, in hospitals, M/Mme/Mlle is normal.

2. Are you comfortable talking with healthcare providers?

Yes - and they listen to me. They have to - with my accent.

3. Are you comfortable with physical eye contact and touch from your healthcare providers?

Yes. There's less regard for physical privacy in FR. In hospital rooms, for eg, if it's a shared room, there aren't curtains around the beds. So if your roomie is having an enema administered, you hope you're fit enough to leave the room while it's going on. Or you avert your eyes. And nose.

4. What are some high-risk behaviors that are prevalent in French culture today? (Safety measures, substance use, ect.)

All the usual drugs / alcohol / smoking problems prevalent in the west.

Driving is worse here than in the UK (imo - but statistics would seem to back me up on that)

Health & safety practices in the workplace seem more slapdash than one would see in the UK - particularly small companies and particularly artisans. Quality of scaffold (or lack) of being an example

Every day hygiene: go into boulangerie, shake hands with half-a-dozen people, buy your baguette and carry it home clutched in the same hands that have just transferred germs from (by association) dozens of people. Ewww.

5. What are some common, significant foods eaten by the French

population today? Are there any mealtime rituals observed? Foods that

are avoided?

Common significant foods?

All the usual food groups are eaten. A daily intake of bread still seems genuinely ingrained and of course the price of an ordinary baguette is (I believe) still state-controlled. While there may be a higher use of olive oil / Mediterranean diet further south - or duck fat as a major cooking ingredient in the south west - here in Normandy cream and butter are important because of the type of agriculture. Cheese too, but every region has its own cheeses. I would say that tripe and intestines generally (Andouille sausages) are an important part of French cuisine not necessarily reflected to the same extent in the average British diet. [6]

I've noticed over the past 10 - 12 years far more processed frozen foods

in supermarkets (not just the fresh, traiteur items from traiteurs and

from the deli counters in supermarkets) so imo mass produced convenience

foods are on the increase.

Wine probably qualifies as a major food group.

Mealtime rituals?

Eating at the table not on laps; less snacking between meals - particularly less sweet snacking - and the main meal still at lunchtime though that's changing and depends somewhat on the type of work / working day. Lighter meals in the evening. Proper desserts / desserts are for high days and holidays - a dessert after a normal meal might be a piece of fruit or a fromage fraïs or similar. French people have said to us that it's vital to have protein at lunchtime to enable you to function for the rest of the day.

Foods avoided?

In rural France, anything not considered French or French influenced or by adoption (north African, Vietnamese, etc, are 'allowed' but there's colonial history at work there) But town / city France may be different and more cosmopolitan in its acceptances. I've noticed more Chinese restaurants - vast ones - springing up in this region.

6. What is pregnancy like in the life of a French woman? What are

some accepted/unaccepted practices relate to fertility and prevention of

pregnancy? Beliefs related to pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and the

post-birth period?

Dunno. I'm not French and haven't had children and most of my friends have teenagers and upwards. One thing I've noticed is that French women seem to spend at least 7 days in hospital after a birth, even of a second child. It's what you do. A lot of help and support is given at that time.

7. Tell me about French healthcare practices in general: common

beliefs related to "why" illness occurs? Illness treatment and

prevention? beliefs related to blood transfusions, organ donations,

mental illness, self-medication practices, or any use of "things" other

than traditional treatment options to treat health problems?

Healthcare practices in general?

You visit the doctor or at least the pharmacy for every small thing, even a cough or cold, and you expect to be given prescriptions (ordonnonces) to enable / speed recovery.

Self-medication?

At its simplest level, self-medication is more difficult than in the UK

as supermarkets are not allowed to sell painkillers, flu / cold

remedies, etc. These may only be bought in a pharmacy and often staff

will quiz you and advise you on products you might want or need.

Generalised statements / comments:

France concentrates on catching problems early and dealing with them. I'd be interested to know the comparitive child mortality rates from meningitis because doctors and hospital Urgences send them home with a box of paracetamol. In my experience, unexplained high temperatures, for eg, are treated seriously here. Possibly too seriously. The UK is more wait and see. In the case of, for eg, hip replacements, the patient here is considered capable of stating when their life is being adversely affected by reduced mobility and pain and (after all the tests, x-rays, etc) an operation is done. UK: patient may be unable to work efficiently, cannot sleep through the night and is maxed out on strong pain killers but the NHS will still say that "you're not bad enough for an op yet".

To do any meaningful comparison between UK and France, you need to look at the differences in funding (100% state vs (in FR) state + complementaire / mutuelle / top up insurance for what the state doesn't cover. Also the health infrastructure: laboratories in every town for blood tests, the home nurse system where you book your (self-employed) nurse to come in every day for dressing changes, to administer injections, etc. Prescriptions for car ambulances (taxis, really) to take you to medical appointments - particularly chemo / radiotherapy if these treatments are long-term and there is no friend or relative available to take you. Consider also that the FR health system is bankrupt and 12 billion euros overspent.

Full private medical insurance for French residents who work is / was illegal. Until the inactifs (early retired immigrants not working in FR) were refused admission to the main state system, I don't think full private medical insurance was available in France. But I could be wrong about that.

Polyclinics / hospitals - urgences (emergencies) - our local polyclinics operate a point garde at weekends and for when GPs are not available - in effect this is a GP who sees people away from the main emergency area. Unlike the UK, if you've a problem, you go straight to Urgences. OH has had a few odd things happen, always at the weekend, and his visits to Urgences for gout, shingles on the face, etc, has had him dealt with on all occasions in less than an hour or less and it is very efficient. Even the independent labs for blood tests have had an on-call member of staff who's been there within 5 minutes of a phone call.

As others have observed, results of tests are either discussed at the time (eg, x-rays) or results of blood tests are mailed both to the patient as well as the GP or other doctor, usually within 24 hours. None of this "we'll write to you GP and he'll be in touch" and waiting for 2 weeks.

The UK and FR systems are so different that without setting them in the national context, the answers to a lot of the questions you've asked aren't going to sit on a firm foundation.

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  • 7 years later...

I am very grateful that there is a forum where good people give advice for life in France. I recently moved to Paris. I am now 7 weeks pregnant. And I heard a lot of good advice that I needed during my pregnancy. There are a lot of important nuances of life in France and motherhood. One of the tips I read was about tattoos during pregnancy. I wanted to get a tattoo, but I often asked myself can you get tattooed while pregnant?  I was told on this forum not to as there is a risk of infection for the baby. Thanks to this forum for the reliable advice!

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