Cultural Competence And Health Care Workers Get The Same Nationwide Training For Patients With Diverse Values, Beliefs,

Cultural competency aids in closing the “disparities gap” in health care. ("OMH," 2012, para. 2) In doing so, health professionals and their clients are better able to discuss concerns without cultural differences getting in the way of effective communication and problem solving. Being respectful of and sensitive to the client’s health beliefs, culture, values, and diverse needs can bring positive outcomes within treatment and patient care. After all, is it not the main job of the health care provider to ensure patient trust? Open forms of communication when dealing with client issues can only be provided if the patient is comfortable with his provider and believes his

Critically analyse one of the main challenges, barriers, and enablers for cultural competence in health care when working in a cross-cultural environment.

Cultural competency is a set of appropriate behaviours, attitudes and policies among professionals and enables them to work efficiently in cross-cultural situations (NCCC, 2006). A culturally competent health care system can eliminate cultural inequities, provide greater quality of care, and have less patient dissatisfaction and more positive health consequences. A conclusion reached in a study (Palafox et al., 2002) states, culture influences the outcome of medical examination and; therefore, it is vital to provide culturally competent health care services. Cultural competency is especially important in the context of radiographic examination due to the variety of culturally different patients a radiographer comes in contact. The following case study effectively highlights the impact of cultural competency.

At our hospital it is our goal is to accept diversity and cultural differences. To accomplish this I suggest that we provide training on cultural competence to all

Cultural competence plays a significant role in health care delivery. There is a lack of cultural competence in the U.S. heath care. Despite current effort to deal with the issue, the problem still exist and many patients are suffering from it impact. Many people are not being able to get adequate care due to the lack of communication, languages, beliefs, values, perspective, and customs. Cultural competence barriers are critical in reducing health disparity. Those barriers include: lack of diversity in the healthcare settings, lack of system of care that can address the needs of various populations, inadequate communication between healthcare providers and patients of distinct ethnic, racial, language, belief, customs, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

The Think Cultural Activity was very informative. It revealed the importance of cultural competency during patient care. The activity provided several examples that I may be faced with in the future and how to improve the overall patient experience. Communication between the provider and the patient is extremely important. After completing this assignment, I realize that utilizing an on-site interpreter is the preferred method of communication with patient that are not proficient in English. I enjoyed learning about the LEARN and BATHE models. I believe both of these models will help enhance my communication skills. As a provider, it is important that I evaluate my own cultural bias and knowledge deficits of certain cultures. This assignment

Cultural competency is important in the health care field, especially in the United States, because of the great diversity. Knowing that people from different cultural backgrounds have specific beliefs on how the body works and is maintained. Researching these differences will allow the healthcare professional to use fewer stereotypes and treat each patient equally. Working in dental offices and attending school with people from the Pacific Islands has led me to develop stereotypes about their culture. I am sure not all of the stereotypes I have are true, so it is important for me to research the culture’s healthcare beliefs and practices before treating the patient. The different beliefs will affect how I approach the patient during the dental hygiene process of care, especially during the initial assessment and during the planning process.

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.

With the inclusion of cultural competency, healthcare practices have seen improvements in interpersonal patient-provider relationships, better retention of patients throughout the full plan of care, and are better able to address specific health issues that predominantly affect minorities (ie. cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular disease). In the absence of cultural competency, healthcare providers run the risk of patient dissatisfaction and miscommunication that can lead to wrongly stereotyping and generalizing patients, inadequate patient plans of care, and even malpractice claims noting the provider’s negligence in meeting “professional standards of care” (National Center for Cultural Compliance). In (video), a healthcare provider mentions the importance of “treating all individuals with the same respect and dignity”, which is valuable. But what is even more valuable and more forward-thinking is not treating individuals the same, but treating them with the mindset that “yes this person is different, so I need to provide them a unique, individualized treatment plan that respects their cultural values and also gives dignity to the individual’s right upholding their beliefs while improving

It is important to first define cultural competency, as the ability for health professionals to work in situations where their personal culture may not be identical to that of the patient they are interacting with (Blackburn, 2015). Unfortunately, there is no definitive definition utilized across professions (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2011). This can make it difficult to pursue in both teaching it and evaluating it. In fact, this study will only touch on one method of evaluating cultural competence with three subscores: awareness, organization, and skills (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2011). This is not the only way to interpret and evaluate the particular realm of competence however, as there was yet another method of evaluation using five subsets: awareness/sensitivity, behaviors, patient-centered communication, practice orientation, and self-assessment (Schwarze, Witte, Sellers, Luzadis, Weiner, Domingo-Snyder, & Page Jr., 2015). This poses a solution to the lack of cultural competency and awareness; however the discord between methods of evaluation can also pose a problem with consistency.

Cross-cultural medicine is an important area to expand because, as Fadiman noted, fifty percent of the US population growth has come from immigrants as of 1990. (Fadiman, 271) These immigrants which include many Middle-Easterners, Asians, and Latin Americans may discover our healthcare system is culturally insensitive. This could lead to lower rates of hospital expenditure, as well as lower morbidity within the US. In fact, if patients were to stop viewing hospitals as last resorts their would be less death, because it is these visits where patients most often die. (Fadiman, 63) Although, there has been a push to incorporate lessons in cross-cultural medicine into medical schools we must also teach cross-cultural medicine to nurse practitioners in order to increase hospital accessibility. (Fadiman, 271)

Cultural competency is incredibly important to reducing health situations and improving access to good quality health care, health care that is imperative to the needs of diverse patients. “Cultural competence gives systems, agencies, and groups of professionals a chance to function effectively to understand the needs of groups accessing health information and health care in an inclusive partnership where the provider and the user of the information meet on common ground.”(NIH, 2013). Cultural competence benefits consumers, stakeholders, and communities and supports positive health outcomes. Since there are many elements that can influence health communication, including behaviors, and language, cultural competence is inevitable in order to get what you want in the classroom. Planning poorly in the classroom, planning that is ignorant to principles of cultural competence may yield false and biased results.

When we grasp distinctive culture then we will all live in a glad society. The best from among these two approaches to beat the troubles coming about because of cultural impacts is for healthcare staff to be prepared in race balance and social consciousness of another society. This will make them to comprehend that diverse individuals have different cultures and will likewise set them up ahead on what's in store when managing administration clients with respect to their way of life and convictions or

Cultural competency is especially important in the health care setting, where barriers to communication and access to quality care can result in delayed diagnosis, inappropriate treatment, or worse. Cultural competence involves both awareness and knowledge about other cultures. Cultural competence requires acknowledging that culture and ethnicity guide and affect behavior, and that all people are cultural beings (Betancourt et al.,2010). Many studies of cultural competence training have found that it has a beneficial effect on the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of physicians and on patient

Over the years the United States has become more culturally diverse (Haynes, 2016). As a result, it is estimated that one-third of the United States population is minorities, which the number of minorities is estimated to increase to 54% by 2050 (Haynes, 2016). Therefore, the increase in cultures can lead to or increase the health care disparities. Consequently, it is essential that health care organizations improve its cultural competency. Overall, the increased diversity in the population and the documented health care disparities have made cultural competency essential in order, to ensure that every patient receives quality health care services (Haynes, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of culture on health care.