Pagdikta (The dictation): the meanings in Filipino mothers’ experience of using herbal plants in the management of their children’s fever
One of the main indicators of an illness is fever and it is managed in different ways by mothers based on their existing culture. After a health diagnosis, dominant fever management of a certain community with inaccessible health center was the use of herbal plants despite easy access to relat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2011
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3551/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3551/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3551/1/special%2520issue%25202011_24.pdf |
| Summary: | One of the main indicators of an illness is fever and
it is managed in different ways by mothers based
on their existing culture. After a health diagnosis,
dominant fever management of a certain
community with inaccessible health center was the
use of herbal plants despite easy access to
relatively expensive over-the-counter medicine.
Hence, we explored the meanings of using herbal
plants in the management of children’s fever by
Filipino using qualitative-phenomenological
research philosophy (Colaizzi, ). Seven mothers
were interviewed with the aid of recorders,
journals, field notes and memos with the mothers’
consents. The narrative data were analyzed using
the Morse and Field process. Themes were
discovered highlighting the process of how the
mothers managed their children’s fever through the
utilization of herbal plants. Thematic variations in
the use of herbal plants and their preparation,
utilization and application were ascertained. From
these thematic analysis emerged a cultural
relationality which provided an integrated process
of PAGDIKTA (Eng. dictation), the major theme
of the experience. This summarized the selection,
adoption and transfer of the herbal plants for
management of fever with cultural involvement.
PAGDIKTA [acronym which means PAG-pitas,
DIK-dik, TA-pal] is the concept learned to present
the views of cultural selection, adoption and
transfer of fever management practice of motherinformants.
PAGDIKTA can be further analyzed
with the following subconcepts: Pagpitas (Eng.
picking) is the process of choosing a culturally
accepted herbal plant for their fever. Dikdik (Eng.
pounding) is the progression of cultural adoptation
and imbuement of practice by mother-informants.
Tapal (Eng. application) is the application and
transmission of the feverpractice based on the
perceived and observed efficacy of practices
directed to their children’s fever. Cultural
awareness, assessment and competence are needed
to completely understand specific populations with
special needs such as the mothers in a community
in the Philippines. |
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