Essay On Cultural Competence In Healthcare

After taking the self-assessment survey for quality and culture, I would like to improve and understand how cultural competence can have a real impact on clinical outcomes. Taking from some of the questions I answered wrong, it make me wants to be cultural competent. There are a few questions I am surprised and shocked, that I answered them incorrectly. I do understand that with training, I will start to gain cultural competence but it will take consistent individual practice on my part to develop and maintain individual cultural competence. Cultural competence can lead to, health literacy, health equity, and fewer diagnostic errors, which might help the patient expand their choices and access high quality medical providers because patient

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.

In health care today, there are many different cultures found in our patient population. Patients often have difficulty conforming to medical regimens due to their cultural beliefs and practices. Completing a comprehensive cultural assessment is the key to understanding the specific components of their culture to facilitate effective and efficient nursing care. In this paper I will describe the key components of a comprehensive cultural assessment. Two of the components will be discussed in relation to the Afghan culture and how that impacts providing culturally diverse care.

In other words, to be culturally competent, professionals must provide superior, respectful medical care to all patients. This must start with building an understanding of basic philosophies and value systems of different population groups. This is especially critical in the nursing field where much time is spent providing hands on care with each patient. A nurse must be sensitive to language differences, social cues and personal lifestyle choices

Individual cultures and belief must be recognized and respected. Cultural understanding is the extensive logic to be cognizance, attentive and application of information and knowledge associated with ethnicity, culture, gender, or sexual coordination in clarifying and appreciative circumstances and reactions of individuals in their environment. Critical assessment on each of the patient individually is very important and cultural assumptions concerning patient 's beliefs or health practices should be avoid. Several areas should be considered when assessing cultural beliefs of patients, such as individual insight of illness and management, the social organization comprising family, communication activities, pain expression, general health care beliefs, previous experience with care, and language. Cultural practices associated with nonverbal communication in the course of conversation are very important.

It trains health care providers to overcome cultural barriers like communication and language. Cultural competency has the potential to reduce inequities in access to health care services and improve the health status of cultural communities by reducing healthcare disparities. The goal of cultural competency is to provide health care to the community that is respectful of and responsive to the needs of diverse patients. It helps the health care provider to understand the needs of patients while seeking treatment. It helps to patient-provider to meet on common ground in the diagnosis and treatment plan of the disease.

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).

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.

Furthermore, they should be aware of the cultures of the patients their facility is serving. It is crucial to maintain cultural competence for yourself and for

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.,

The way a person thinks about health, “whether that is our ‘philosophy’, our ‘worldview’, our ‘framework’ influences what we do as individuals in practice,” as well as how we deliver the health service. These elements allow us to think about healthcare in our own culturally acceptable way, this isn’t always an acceptable way of delivering the service to people with views different to our own. Cultural competence is an approach that aids in influencing the service and the education of healthcare professionals. (Taylor, K., & Guerin, P., 2010). Cultural competence is defined as a knowledge and understanding of cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in a cultural context congruent to the expectations of the people of that culture.

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.

Hallmarks of cultural competence, including role development and self-discovery, play an instrumental part in the cultural diversity within an organization as a whole. Diversity stems from the top, from CEO’s and executive boards, and trickles down to employees and patients. However, one thing I learned in this course is that people hold biases that they are unaware of and that cultural competence does not happen overnight. With this acquired knowledge, it has been brought to my attention about which implicit biases I hold and how I can work to eliminate them. Secondly, language access services, as an aspiring speech-language pathologist, play a direct role in my future career because I want to give a voice to the often misunderstood.

This applies to all parties involved regardless of disabilities, culture, religion, generation gap, and or economic class. Cultural Awareness aligns with health literacy with the promotion of communication and supporting perception, beliefs, and cultural values. The two are dynamic in healthcare settings because it promotes trust, relationships, respect, and weakens stereotypes. Education and working in diverse cultures that is different from the norm of a health care professional is the key to gaining a better understanding as to why different cultures hold so true to their roots. Cultural, language, and religion barriers are the top three issues when it comes to the misconnection in healthcare.

Recognising a cultural identity, cultural values and beliefs takes up an important part of ever-greater needs of the multicultural community within culturally diverse health care environment. Cultural value is a barometer of whether is right, wrong, acceptance and justice within specific society’s view. Each individual member of the community has tendencies to show respect and follows normative values sanctioned in the culture group (Spencer, 2012). The cultural beliefs can also be good examples of showing how the individuals from different culture processing ideas on health care service expectation, healthcare providers, and their levels of compliance for available care option (Dana, 1997, p.64). Above mentioned cultural concepts are crucial