Cultural Competency Simply put, the United States is a diverse country. It is common knowledge that this a country founded upon immigration. Moreover, with the advancements in transportation and the growing trends toward globalization this course is more than likely to continue – barring any radical governmental intervention. That is why cultural competency is so vital, especially when it comes to healthcare. Because the sad fact is, not all ethnic groups receive the same level of care (Kittler, Sucher & Nelms, 2017). As a healthcare provider you should give your patients the best care possible, and that can only be achieved when you are accommodating to different needs. There is no place for ethnocentrism in today's world, and healthcare
Cultural competency can be described as the ability to interact with different cultures in a positive manner. Many cultural differences can become apparent in a number of situations. According to Fadiman, doctors have a moral duty to save lives even if they don’t agree with the values or beliefs of someone else’s culture (1997). This paper will address the topic of cultural competency, with a concentration on the importance of cultural competency in the medical field. It is hard to imagine how frustrating it may be to come across a patient that resists a professional’s opinion because they have solid beliefs or do not understand what doctors are attempting to convey.
Medical providers that have cultural competency will overall enhance the quality of care to a diverse group of patients. Having that cultural knowledge would help the medical provider make the patient feel comfortable ultimately increasing the chance for that patient to follow through or adhere to the medical provider's treatment plan. It would also allow the medical provider to help build a friendly nurturing relationship with all of his or her patients. Developing these friendly relationships with patients will help make the patient worry less about a difficult diagnosis and would give them hope that they could one day get better from it. When a medical provider is culturally competent they would know how to respond to certain medical scenarios
Did you know that I appreciate your positive attitude and that reflects during class on how you approach other class mates and how you relate to their experiences. In regards of your post here I agree that Cultural Competencies are a set of beliefs that needs to be taught and passed on from an early age and preferable long before people are taking courses that relate to Human Services and working with different populations. While class room and work experiences are a great start I question if it is enough when a worker in this field goes home after 8 hours and relapses back into her or his own cultural experiences. While some of us experience other diversities and cultures during our practicum site it might also be effective to eat and sleep
Cultural competency is vital when working with diverse populations in health care because of all of the different cultures and ethnicities prevalent in our country. America is a true melting pot, and the acculturation which inevitably occurs, is an important aspect of assimilation. Since communication is a key objective in the prognosis of various ailments, the healthcare experience is reliant on today's health professionals to have an adept understanding of a multicultural environment. A regulatory dilemma which is common in today's culture, is the alienation of groups that are not understood by our healthcare system. These patients often resort to self care , which often leads to serious complications and other health issues as a result
Cultural competency has the potential to reduce inequities in access to health services and improve the health status of diverse cultural
Cultural competence means working respectfully and effectively with all children, their families, team members and the community. It means being aware of your own values, beliefs, practices and prejudices and the influence this can have on your decision making. It means continual reflection on your work practices and working towards a better understanding and respect for all cultures. Being culturally competent also means being aware of dominant and minority cultures and the affect this has on the community and adapting your ways to interact with the children and families to make them feel safe, secure and supported (EYLF Outcome 1- Children have a strong sense of identity). Cultural competence not only belongs to an individual as an educator
Hi Moncy, I agree with you as you noted the increasing diversity of the nation brings opportunities and challenges to health care system, on the other side a culturally competent health care system helps to improve health outcomes and quality of care, which eliminate racial and ethnic disparities. foster advocacy for social justice and increase focus on global healthcare, the cultural competence class benefit diverse population to receive more satisfactory patient care, uplift social justice and increase global health as well cultural competency skills , make self-awareness among nursing workforce also provide an opportunity to staffing to learn and experience life from different perspectives and able to recognize each person has their own
Examine how public health organizations and health care providers encourage their employees to gain “cultural competence” beyond being bilingual. First they need to enhance their employee’s self-awareness of attitudes they might have towards different racial and ethnic groups. Second they can improve the care that they give by simply increasing their knowledge about different cultural beliefs and practices. How those groups typical seek health care and the attitudes they have toward health care.
If nurses lack of understanding regarding community demographics and cultural differences, they can have unintentional bias, and stereotype patients due to a lack of awareness of the cultural demographics of the community they serve (Camphinha-Bacote, 2011). Cultural competence is the understanding of different cultures and how that impacts the provision of patient care. Cultural competence in nursing is defined as one willingness or the desire to understand a patient’s culture, the ability to learn about a defined cultures belief system, and to work effectively as a healthcare provider understanding the dynamics of the patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships and care (Kardong-Edgren et Al.,
My answer: Based on the blueprint for teaching cultural competence in physical therapy association, updated by American Physical Therapy Association, 2014, some of the core values of a physical therapist are clinical excellence and social responsibility. Physical therapists should practice flexibility and possess the ability to understand every person's behavior, as well as their way of life due to cultural practices. Physical therapists fall under the three cross-cultural stages, such as knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity. Cultural competence is essential to all health care providers. To provide an excellent quality of care to our patient, we must know a person's culture, just like entering the patient's world.
I think some of the best ways that healthcare providers can become more culturally competent, is through the training of healthcare providers and future healthcare providers. There should be some sort of training in culture that will facilitate and improve the ability of those in healthcare and those interested to become culturally competent. As a person who is not personally culturally competent, I would love to go out and work in places that are known to have different cultures than what I know, and to observe physicians working in said places. Not only to see different places but to learn the best way to engage with people of different cultures. In doing this, it will facilitate proper, respectful communication and body language towards
Cultural competency: Indians Culture competency is defined as one has the knowledge, the abilities and the skill to deliver care congruent with the patient’s cultural beliefs and practices (Purnell, 2013). As a nurse or a health care provider, increasing ones consciousness of culture diversity improves the possibilities for health care practitioners to provide competent care (Purnell, 2013). Nurses and all health care providers should be aware of other cultures to provide the best care that they can for that individual. Developing a relationship with diverse cultural groups involves good interpersonal skills and the application of knowledge and techniques learned from the physical, biological, and social sciences as well as the humanities (Purnell, 2013). I am choosing to select the Indian culture for my first assignment.
Diversity is important in social work because it allows social workers to help a wider audience of people and communities outside of their own. As a social worker, one must expect that they will encounter clients that have a different culture, ethnicity, race, gender, religion beliefs, etc. then what the social worker is used to. This can be related to cultural competence in social work. Cultural competence is the capability to work effectively with people from different backgrounds.
Over the past four months, this course has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had during my first year of college. Although I have always realized the importance of being culturally competent in daily life, specifically healthcare, I was unaware of the many ways that cultural competence can be obtained. This class gave me the opportunity to view situations from a different perspective, especially through the weekly discussion boards and peer responses. Learning from classmate can teach more valuable lessons than listening to boring lectures or reading hundreds of pages in a textbook because it is easier to relate to experience rather than hypothetical situations. For example, one of the discussion boards asked us to detail
Ethnic disparities in health and health care impose costs on many parts of society, including individuals, families, communities, health care organizations, employers, health plans, and government agencies, including Medicare and Medicaid. These costs include direct expenses associated with the provision of care to a sicker and more disadvantaged population as well as indirect costs such as lost productivity, lost wages, absenteeism, family leave to deal with avoidable illnesses, and lower quality of life. For hospitals and clinics, language barriers may result in higher costs because of less efficient utilization of institutional resources. For example, an incomplete medical history truncated by a language barrier may lead a physician to compensate for possible deficiencies in the patient interview by obtaining more laboratory tests and other diagnostic evaluations. (Hampers et al., 1999).