Cultural Competence

I enjoyed reading your thoughtful discussion post on cultural competency of organizations and nurses. Your rationale for both the organization and the individual nurse being responsible to ensure culturally competent care was similar to mine. For example, I mentioned the need for nursing curriculums at all levels of nursing education to provide competency training (American Academy of Colleges of Nursing website, 2011).

Competency is something education and care services and educators strive for constantly. It is what a service must demonstrate to prove it is meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard. But there is a special type of competency that all services must achieve to deliver high quality education and care to all children—cultural competency. Cultural competence is an essential practice of both the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Aged Care—My Time, Our Place. It is based on the principle contained in both frameworks—respect for diversity. Can educators and services ever truly become culturally competent? Many would say that achievement of this competency is always just beyond grasp. That is why the

Understand cultural competence and why is it important especially for that have a diverse workforce.

In my volunteering experiences at HUDA Clinic, I have met patients from many backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities, each having their own differences as well as intricacies. The most common occurrence at HUDA Clinic is the language barrier between the physician and the patient. Normally, a physician has the skills to be able to effectively communicate to the patient, especially with regards to personal questions. However, when a patient comes in that requires the need for a translator, there are times where I must be able to effectively convey the physicians questions to the patients in the same professional manner. Cultural disparities play a role here in that some cultures are extremely reserved in the interaction between men and women. Although religion may allow for this interaction, certain cultures limit this interaction more so than

I was able to demonstrate cultural competence when I volunteered at the hospital reading books to patients. I had a chance to interact with diverse groups and learn about different cultures. Some patients used to teach me their language and this is how I became more culturally sensitive. In the beginning, I had a hard problem connecting with them because I lacked the knowledge of their cultural practices. So to solve this, first I had to become aware of my own culture by asking my parents some questions and reading books that pertain to my culture. I had to understand how my culture has affected me before I understand how it affects others. The reason that I thought this was important was because if I become comfortable talking about my culture

Part of a social worker’s job is to be culturally competent and to be able to work successfully with people from diverse backgrounds. In the field of social work, being culturally competent is crucial for many reasons. For example, cultural competence requires social workers to inspect their own cultural backgrounds in order to expand awareness of their own personal assumptions, values, beliefs, stereotypes, biases, and attitudes. Being aware will help with client relationships. Cultural competence can be seen and discussed in the journal article, Cultural Competence and Social Work Education: Moving Toward Assessment of Practice Behaviors, by Jayshree S. Jani, Philip Osteen, and Stacy Shipe (2016).

Cultural competence in nursing involves the application of skills, knowledge, personal attributes, and attitudes required by practitioners to maintain a respectful relationship with patients, co-workers, and other clients. Markedly, the essential components of competent cultural care in nursing includes cultural skill, cultural awareness, cultural encounter, cultural knowledge, and cultural desire. Cultural awareness involves an in-depth self-examination of one’s professional and cultural background whereas cultural knowledge includes gathering information of various ethnic and cultural groups. The ability of a nurse to acquire cultural data of a patient and perform a specific assessment of it is known as cultural skill. A cultural encounter is a process where nurses are involved in cross-cultural relations with patients from varying cultural backgrounds. The motivation to engage in cultural encounters and become culturally aware is referred to as cultural desire (Huber, 2009).

From the self-assessment survey for quality and culture I took, I would like to improve and understand how cultural competence can have a real impact on clinical outcomes. There are a few questions I was surprised that I answered them incorrectly. Now I do understand that what I learned in this culturally competence class will help me become more efficient in cultural competence, to provide quality care to all my patients regardless of gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnic, but it will take consistent individual practice, patience, and training on my part to develop and maintain that. I have learned that being culturally competent and implementing sound cultural competency techniques, will help to increase health access and reduce health disparities among different racial and ethnic groups. 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 the patient is no longer restricted to a small pool of clinicians who share their culture.

As the population of the United States continues to become more diverse, healthcare providers should effectively communicate with each patient regardless of their culture, nationality, religion or socioeconomic status. Nurses and other providers should be delivering patient centered care that is culturally competent. “Culture also includes the integrated pattern of thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions associated, wholly or partially, with racial, ethnic, or linguistic groups, as well as with religious, spiritual, biological, geographical, or sociological characteristics” (Lamb, 2014, p. 132). Nurses are caring for a culturally diverse population, so considering the role of culture, language, and

Cultural competence allows nurses to be able to provide the best care for their patients. Many individuals in different cultures have many differences that a nurse may not agree with or understand. It is the nurse’s job to understand a patient’s practices, cultural norms and lifestyle choices.

“Cultural competence” can been defined as the process by which individuals respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures, languages, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, religions, genders, and sexual orientation (State of Oregon, DHS – Diversity Development Coordinating Council, n.d.). To be “culturally competent” requires more than having knowledge of certain cultural groups. It is the ability to:

The physicians and oncology nurses face the challenges every day in commitment to care of cancer patient in communication while discussion about the diagnosis, treatment and management. The specialized area demands the special skills in communication linguistically as well as culturally competent aspects. Decision making is one of the vital parts of cancer patients in order to align with life change activities. Certain barriers are encountered in communication on the basis of race, ethnic biases, their health beliefs and values, living conditions, and lack of health care resources (de Graaff, Francke, van den Muijsenbergh, & van der Geest, 2012). In which the cultural competency framework is to reach the goal of the institution through its educational activities by means of policies, interpreter services, and cross-cultural experts in training physician and nurses in progression of quality care of culturally diverse patients (Weber, Sulstarova, & Singy, 2016)

In this qualitative research, Cerimagic aims at determining whether a patient’s culture, language, and race affect the quality of the patient-doctor relationship and communication. The researcher used a secondary analysis methodology in order to conduct a systematic review of existing literature and past research findings. Thease recent and past researches produced the complications that resulted from cultural differences and its effects on health care provider-patient communication and relationships. The qualifications for sampling frame included studies in English language and those

Social psychology focuses on how an individual will act in a social situation, but it can also include cultural aspects. Social competence describes a complex system of an individual's social and behavioral skills. This can affect how an individual may react in a social situation. Cultural competence describes how larger organizations can work in cross-cultural situations. This allows organizations to work to meet the needs for a bigger group of people. Looking at both social and cultural competence can show how individuals adapt to situations. This paper will describe what social and cultural competence is, and how they are significantly important in today's society.

It is essential for the awareness of ‘cultural difference’, to achieve cultural competence. EYLF states and Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations (DEEWR) and Council of Australian Governments (COAG) can agree; ‘Cultural competence is much more than awareness of cultural differences. It is the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures’ (p. 16). Standpoint theory clarifies the understanding of your own identity, in connection to the surroundings you live. This is all affected by the learning you gain from yourself and others all over the world. Some of your comprehension is delivered, which is can be constrained by the limitations that the school curriculum in force and whom you may surround yourself with on a day to day basis.