Cultural Competence In Healthcare For Providers

Although the caring act of nursing has not changed, the attitude and approach to the practice must be adjusted to meet the current health care needs. At the present time, care providers are not only faced with the challenge of providing quality and efficient care, but also, the issues of communicating with patients of various cultures. Even with several resources and guidelines available to clinicians, in the real-time setting, nurses, with their hurried tasks, often resort to stereotyping, feeling incompetent to offer holistic care to cultural groups. In order to meet the needs of a multicultural population, nurses must have useful parameters they can readily apply at the bedside to be able to provide a quality,

Cultural competence is defined as possessing the skills and knowledge necessary to appreciate, respect, and work with individuals from different cultures. It is a concept that requires self-awareness, awareness and understanding of cultural differences, and the ability to adapt to clinical skills and practices as needed

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

The main ideas that Lisa Bourque Bearskin is stating in this article is that nurses need to be more sensitive to cultural care. They need to be aware of the issues in healthcare and strive to remove any barriers for certain groups, such as the first nations, and they need to disrupt any unequal relations in the social, political and historical aspect of healthcare. The way this can be done is by shifting their thoughts from cultural competence to cultural safety by way of relational ethics. Cultural competence is explained as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that nurses need to use to care for cultural differences. Another framework described cultural competence as going through the stages of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Cultural competency works very well when making policies in an agency but this view fosters a view of culture that does not encourage nurses to ask questions. (Bearskin, 2011) Cultural Competence causes different cultures to be put in a box, which cannot be done because cultures are constantly changing and every person’s culture is different. Culture is individual. Lisa Bourque Bearskin goes on to say that cultural safety is what nurses should use for ethical practice. In cultural safety, a nurse must strive to improve health care and its access for all people, while recognizing that there are many different cultures that have a right to be recognized. Bourque

Cultural competence is the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the individual health care professionals when they treat individual patients who are from different race, ethnicity, and religion and diverse backgrounds. In the U.S, some patients receive equal treatment in the health care facilities, but others receive unequal treatment because they are from diverse backgrounds. In the article, “Cultural Clues” Melissa Hansen focuses on the importance of culturally competent workforce- (nurses, technicians, and doctors) who can recognize cultural differences to allow effective communication with patients. The culturally competent health care workers also include the community health workers- (community health promoters, village health workers, and lay health advisers). In fact, the lack of understanding between the healthcare workers and patients is results in an estimated one-third of patients who do not adhere to prescribed medication regimens. This condition leads not only to serious complication and more hospitalizations, but also is costing the U.S. health system an estimated $100 billion to $290 billion every year (Hansen 22). Necessarily, the health care workforce needs to improve this state to reduce disparities.

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.

Congress and the President had both identified the an issue with care of minority and ethnic populations.

In the field of healthcare we will have regular contact with patients, community members, physicians, nurses, vendors, trustees, and organizational staff. As a healthcare administrator, I will strive to develop skills in working with people, negotiation, and analyzing information. Administrators in the field of healthcare are less specialized and more hands-on in their approach. In healthcare we not only build awareness, but we build trust, respect and understanding across cultures and within multicultural workplace, fostering productive interactions and agreements. I think it’s important to be aware of cultural diversity because relationships can die (or never began) simply for the lack of understanding. Cultural helps in the workplace to

“Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, skills and policies that come together in a system or among professionals and enable that system or professionals to work effectively in cross cultural situations”.(). In order to understand what cultural competence is, nurses first have to know the meaning of culture.

The culture could also be thought of as involvement in the sense the internal focus on organization is on the involvement and participation of all their employees. This culture is represented from everyone in the organization who comes in contact with the patient. This consists of the first interaction a patient has when they call the office to schedule an appointment and speak with the receptionist on the phone. The objective for the receptionist is to ensure the patient receives an appointment in a timely manner. The second interaction the patient has is when they arrive at the office and is greeted by the employee at the front desk. The employee checks the patient in and makes sure they are provided the proper paperwork to fill in before

Defined as the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural and linguistic needs (Georgetown University, 2004) Cultural competence is an ideal that spans across not only healthcare, but also law enforcement. Utilizing the same mindset as the healthcare industry, law enforcement has the dubious task of deciphering how to provide a service meant for all and ensure that the needs of all citizens and businesses are met. According to Terry Cross (1988), culturally competent agencies are characterized by acceptance and respect for difference, continuing self-assessment regarding culture, careful attention to the dynamics of difference, continuous expansion of cultural knowledge and resources, and a variety of adaptations to service models in order to better meet the needs of minority populations. The culturally competent agency works to hire unbiased employees, seeks advice and consultation from the minority community and actively decides what it is and is not capable of providing to minority clients.

In health care, cultural competence is one of the most critical considerations in caring for patients. Cultural competence is described as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, organization or those professions to work efficiently in cross-cultural situations (Cross et al., 1989). Understanding different cultures will raise awareness of patient's identity, health, behavior, and cultural sensitivity. Even though there are many types of cultures knowing it could be beneficial for client's care and could result in a better outcome. Each culture has its own uniqueness; however, they all have a tremendous impact on how ones behave, think, communicate, value, and how the person perceives the world around them. Nurses will need to be conscious about patient's cultural diversity and modified their care, assessment, or treatment according to what is appropriate for the patients. America is considered to be a melting pot, where many cultures come together. According to Asian Matters for America Matters for Asia, the Asian population has increased by 46% over the past decade (East-West Center, 2013). The growing population of Asian effected not only the economy, but it also influences health care.

Understanding cultural competence is necessary to any career, but more particularly with health-related careers. Some do not understand the barriers that may occur during the provider-patient interaction, if the provider lacks the knowledge about a patient’s culture. “The providers need to be culturally aware, sensitive, and competent to be effective in integrating health beliefs and practices into the plan of care for the patient” (Purnell, 2005 p.8). In 1995, Larry Purnell, developed The Purnell Model of Cultural Competence, which provided an organized framework “to guide cultural competence among multidisciplinary members of the healthcare team, in a variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary settings” (Purnell, 2005 p. 7). This model consists of 12 domains including an overview of heritage, communication, family roles and organization, workforce issues, biocultural ecology, high-risk behaviors, nutrition, pregnancy and childbearing, death rituals, spirituality, healthcare practices, and healthcare practitioners. The immigrants of the Philippines attracted my interest since I was young, way before I became a nurse. The area that I currently live in has changed in the recent years and the Filipino culture is more commonly seen in my community than ever before. In my view they are looked at as smart, hard-working, individuals that have truly worked their way up to become successful people in America. However, I do not know everything about their culture, but I gained much

To obtain a higher education is considered to be a rite of passage to many, including those of an elite class. For this reason, the role of education greatly impacts how one is viewed through their social status. However, obtaining a higher education from a local university does not grant the same form of prestige as studying abroad. After all, in order to gain the experience and knowledge from the world’s most influential universities in society one must travel to different countries. In return, these experiences would allow one to become an effective communicator by understanding other cultures.

The world is evolving in many different ways especially in the healthcare industries. Every healthcare facility has adopted many ways to help their patients and teach their healthcare providers to care; how to provide the most optimum care they can give to help, heal, and improve for others. Patient centeredness has been introduced many years ago, and it entails that every patient is entitled to his or her specific plan of care, which will accept all of the patient’s values and views of any healthcare provider. Culture has been some of the obstacles that a nurse, doctor, or any healthcare provider may go through when providing care to a patient, because of the possible boundaries and barriers the patient might have. This is why it is important to make sure that the patient feels safe with anyone that would provide care. It is to make sure that everyone can help improve that certain patient’s life, whether it is a physical therapist, nursing assistant, or a family member, in the most efficient way that the patient can handle. Understanding a patient’s culture and their background is important because it allows for the patient’s values and concerns to be acknowledge. Being able to create a care plan that focuses on the patient is vital to understand how to readily improve an illness.