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The purpose of gaining the patient's informed consent is ethical, lying in respect for his or her autonomy, and such consent forms the foundation for the performance of clinical medical treatment. In order to respect the patient's autonomy, for example, during decisions about operations, doctors have the obligation to clearly explain that patient's medical condition to him/her. A thorough briefing should be given prior to the obtaining of the patients' consent. In fulfillment of their duties as medical professionals, both doctors and nurses should be involved in clinically informing patients as well as in obtaining their signature for operation and anesthesia. Although informing patients about their physical state is not the responsibility of nurses, it remains absolutely necessary for nurses to understand how people in Asian cultures understand autonomy. This paper begins with a discussion of autonomy in ethics, and then outlines the differences between the Eastern and Western concepts of autonomy, before discussing the obtaining of the signature of consent, a process performed by the nursing staff during clinical treatment, and resulting in the provision of such signatures by patients with the legal capacity to provide them.

There has been growing interest in the social-emotional development of children. However, the social-emotional development of children in Asia remains a knowledge gap. This systematic review identifies and summarizes existing studies on children's social-emotional development in Asia. We conducted a systematic review using the Guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). We reviewed 45 studies that met the inclusion criteria, and they were from 12 Asian countries, primarily the East Asia region (China and Hong Kong). Most of the studies were cross-sectional in design (n = 28, 62.2%). Six themes emerged, including (a) social-emotional development (overall) (n = 24, 53.3%); (b) social competence (n = 7, 15.6%); (c) emotional development (n = 5, 11.1%); (d) social-emotional learning (n = 3, 6.7%); (e) problem behavior (n = 3, 6.7%); (f) self-regulation (n = 2, 4.4%); and (g) both social-emotional learning and problem behavior (n = 1, 2.2%). The findings highlighted the paucity of studies, the need for examining more diverse variables in a similar population, and the low quality of intervention studies in social-emotional research in Asia. Research gaps indicate the need for more social-emotional and ethnocultural studies in other Asian regions. Parent and teacher knowledge of children's social-emotional functioning should be examined more closely in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) is a patient-centered nursing concept that emphasizes the autonomy of patients. SDM is a co-operative process that involves information exchange and communication between medical staff and patients for making treatment decisions. In this study, we explored the experiences of clinical nursing staff participating in SDM. Methods: This study adopted a qualitative research design. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 nurses at a medical center in northern Taiwan. All interview recordings were transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was performed to analyze the data. Results: The findings yielded the following three themes covering seven categories: knowledge regarding SDM, trigger discussion and coordination, and respect of sociocultural factors. Conclusions: The results of this study describe the experiences of clinical nursing staff participating in SDM and can be used as a reference for nursing education and nursing administrative supervisors wishing to plan and enhance professional nursing SDM in nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Culture influences personal health habits and behavior, and healthcare personnel possess different views of cultural perspectives. Currently, an appropriate instrument to assess cultural competence in clinical practice is limited. The present study aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Nursing Cultural Competence Scale (NCCS) for clinical nurses. Methods: Developing and assessing the scale was carried out in two phases: Phase I involved a qualitative research to explore the themes of nurses’ cultural competence and instrument development; Phase II established construct validity of the scale using a sample of 246 nurses in Taiwan. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Analysis results were used to determine the reliability and validity of the developed scale. Results: The results showed four factors including cultural awareness ability, cultural action ability, cultural resources application ability, and self-learning cultural ability were generated by exploratory factor analysis, and these factors explained 62.0% of total variance. Cronbach’s α of the Nursing Cultural Competence Scale was .88, and test-retest reliability correlation was .70. Conclusions: The establishment of the tool will facilitate accurate monitoring of the cultural competence among nurses and nursing managers, which can inform the construction of nursing policies aimed at pledge cultural competence expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated the preferences of college students for different forms of causal explanations for indeterminate situations. Topics include the forms of casual explanations, factors that govern preferences for single-cause versus multiple-cause explanations, and the relationship between representational format and perceived quality of causal explanations. The study concludes that preferences for explanation forms vary depending on the context and the audience.

The article reports a study which explored the perceptions of male and female pubescent in eastern Taiwanese students about menarche and menstruation. The results revealed a central theme of ``Struggling to grow up amidst contradictions'' and subthemes ``Ambiguous,'' ``Dirty,'' and ``Personal'' from attitude of Taiwanese students; this attitude was due to sociocultural factors and gender differences. This study shows the need for reproductive health consultations and reliable sex education.

Aims and objectives. This study aimed to explore patient perception of the meaning of family involvement in elective surgery decision making in Taiwan. Background. Informed consent is based on respecting patient autonomy. However in cultures where family plays a key role in medical decision making, a patient's perspective of family involvement has not been fully investigated. Design and methods. Based on a phenomenological approach, this study conducted semistructured interviews to elicit the experiences of 10 elective surgery patients in southern Taiwan who had family present during their surgery decision making. An adapted version of Colaizzi's (1978) method was used to analyse narratives. Results. Three themes emerged from the elective surgery patients' perception of the meaning of family involvement in their surgery decision-making process: (1) Primacy of family well-being, (2) family as information broker, and (3) family as patient advocate. Patients articulated reciprocal relationships amongst family members, and they expressed overall family well-being as their ultimate concern when making their treatment decision. The essence of the elective surgery patients' perception of the meaning of family involvement in decision making was 'family as a whole'. Conclusions. Patients' concern for overall family well-being and their perspective that family plays a supportive role in transmitting information and acting as patient advocate during the decision-making process may both enhance and restrict individual patient autonomy. In cultures where family is central in decision making, appropriately involving the family in medical decisions should not be overlooked. Relevance to clinical practice. Understanding and acknowledging the important roles of family in medical decision making from the patients' perspective can enable health professionals to more effectively communicate with patients and their family. Then, health professionals can empower the individual who is making the medical decision based on his or her own needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant narrative about the origin of the Magang Tian-Hou Temple in the Mazu Islands. It says that the corpse of Lin Mo Niang (Tian Hou) drifted to the coast of Magang after she died at sea when rescuing her father, and the local people buried her and established the temple for her. We can still see the grave in the temple nowadays. In this essay, we try to figure out the social and cultural implication behind this story. First of all, we find that people burying a corpse found on the beach and establishing a temple for him (or her) is a common religious model in the Mazu Islands. Further, we argue that this kind of religious model represents a distinguishing characteristic of small island societies in southeast coastal China. These societies are relatively marginal and unstable. This religious model reflects the struggle over self-identity in these societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined intergenerational communication schemas by investigating young adults' cognitive representations of communication with older adults in Taiwan. Forty-one Taiwanese college students described conversations with an older adult in response to a variety of interviewer prompts. Transcripts were read and content analyzed by the first two authors. To capture the characteristics of the conversation descriptions, eleven coding dimensions were generated based on schema theory, and all conversation descriptions were coded along these dimensions. Coding results were submitted to hierarchical cluster analysis, yielding five schemas: Mutually satisfying, helping, mixed feelings, small talk, and mutually unpleasant conversations. Results are discussed in terms of similarities and differences from Harwood, McKee and Lin's (2000) study, schema theory, intergenerational communication, and Chinese cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]