Providing Culturally Appropriate Care to Muslims With Cancer
Caring for Muslim patients requires healthcare professionals to be aware of their cultural and spiritual values. Some important differences include diet, ideas of modesty, privacy, touch restriction, and alcohol intake restriction.
Worldwide, Islam is the second most populous religion and, in many countries in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, it is the predominant religion. Understanding the role of Islam for people who believe in and follow Islam—Muslims—will provide nurses with important perspectives that affect health behaviors, cancer screening, treatment decision-making, and end-of-life care.
Privacy and Modesty
Muslim patients keep physical contact with the opposite gender to a minimum. Therefore, patients may ask for a same-gender provider to care for them, except in case of emergency, in the absence of the preferred provider, or if the patient grants permission. Women and men may not shake hands or may minimize direct eye contact with the opposite gender as a sign of modesty. In addition, when Muslim women are wearing hospital gowns, the oncology nurse should offer to close the curtains or keep the door closed to maintain privacy.
Dietary Needs
Muslim patients do not eat pork or pork byproducts, such as gelatin or fat (lard), and do not consume alcohol or alcohol-based products. Therefore, Muslim patients may ask to read the ingredients of medications to avoid consuming these substances. They eat (halal) meat from animals slaughtered according to Islamic rites. During the fasting month of Ramadan, patients who are ill, pregnant, or nursing (infants) are excused from the fasting. Some patients may want to fast during Ramadan, and this requires special care, including careful monitoring of blood sugars for diabetics and provision of predawn and post-evening meals to break the fast.
Spiritual Support
Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam. Muslim patients may engage in prayer five times a day (dawn, mid-day, midafternoon, sunset, night) while facing Mecca, a holy city in Saudi Arabia. When a Muslim patient engages in prayer, nurses should avoid interrupting or walking in front of him or her unless for an emergency. Before each prayer, Muslims perform the ablution (wudu), which is washing the exposed parts of the body such as face, hands, and feet. If patients cannot stand up for prayer, they can sit in a chair or bed.
