Cultural Competence

The United States is a nation of immigrants; they have virtually every culture of the world within its borders. Due to this reason, there must be a certain level of cultural competency within its people. A comparison and contrast will be made to compare the Hispanic cultural views on medical care to the American cultural views toward medical care. I chose to explore Hispanic culture because of my background but most importantly due to its richness of unique characteristics. I will provide an overview on how heredity, culture, and environment can influence behavior in the medical office. Furthermore, I will express my opinion about why a medical assistant,

I am a Brazilian black male with military experience and diplomatic knowledge who grew up in a low-income household in a developing country. In addition, I have traveled to about 35 countries and am acquainted with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, religions, ethnic groups and nationalities. These characteristics and experiences allow me to see the world from perspectives that are unusual for most people. Besides being open-minded and non- judgemental toward all my future patients, I personally understand the difficulties faced by people of color, immigrants and individuals from low-income families. In sum, my background and my cultural literacy will allow me to be a sensitive and culturally aware patient-centered care.

The United States is comprised of many cultures within a culture. America is composed of a variety of people who all have different beliefs and traditions, as well as their own unique set of beliefs regarding their healthcare practices. One such group is the Hispanic Americans who have their own very diverse cultural group. As individuals, they are just like anybody else in any other culture. However, it is worthwhile for a nurse caring for someone from this culture to know what their distinct cultural beliefs are. People belonging to a Hispanic cultural group are highly attached to the beliefs and values of their culture and follow them in every aspect of their life (Gallo, 2003). Interestingly, their cultural beliefs even influence the

Cultural, traditional, and religious values have an influence on health patterns and behaviors exhibited by the community. Hispanic culture is dominant due to the close proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border. Fifty-two percent of households use a language other than English at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Therefore, an understanding of Hispanic culture is necessary for health care workers to effectively care for patients in this community.

On the other hand, although the healthcare provider is able to speak their patient's language, providers often fail to consider the patient's education level and may at times use medical jargons that the patient may not understand, thus resulting in a failure to communicate with their patient. Healthcare provider may lack the skills and knowledge in understanding their patient's culture other than their own. This often results in the medical provider "pushing" their beliefs onto their patient and if the desired results are not realized, this results in mistrust of the healthcare provider and the healthcare system. To increase cultural competence among healthcare workers and increase the amount of minority's access to healthcare, medical schools and medical facilities are incorporating "Clinical Cultural Competence Interventions." The goal of this program is to provide "educational and training interventions to equip healthcare providers with the knowledge, tools, and skills to better understand and manage socio-cultural issues in the clinical encounter," (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, and Ananeh-Firempong, 2003, p. 298). Again, although the guidebook is an excellent tool, to achieve the desired health outcomes, it is up to the provider or healthcare team to incorporate these evidence based practices into their

Providing medical care to patients with limited or no knowledge of the English language can be very challenging. Miscommunication, different believes and issues can interfere with a good relationship between the health care giver, the patient and very often the patient´s family. I chose to include the patient´s family because the majority of the Latino population gives a big value to the family which is always present when there is a need to take an important decision such as health treatments.

To begin, the cultural competence self-assessment revealed that with a low score of three out of twelve that I am not very ethnocentric. I don’t believe my culture and my beliefs are most important than another person’s. I think of myself as a normal young-adult trying to live her life, get good grades and work hard. When meeting or interacting with new people I don’t judge them based on their appearance and I treat everyone with the respect that they deserve by viewing them simply as another human being trying to live their day to day life. Although, when obtaining the score of five out of eleven for the for the universalism scale, I found myself to be closer to the mid-range area. This result indicates that I possess some universal assumptions of other cultures. I found this result slightly surprising and unexpected because I don’t believe that everyone associated to a certain group (religious, social-class, etc.) are all the same. For example, when reflecting on my own religion, being raise in a catholic family, attending church at a young age and going to catholic school, I do see similarities in terms of values and morals with others that share the same beliefs as me, but I also see differences. One stereotypical association with Catholics is that they all think that being homosexual, attraction to the same gender, is a sin according to the Bible. However, being a supporter of the LGBT community myself, I do think differently than other Catholics and for that reason I

I’m think I very cultural competent because I know although you can be dark skinned does means you have the same cultural background. I have lived in Korea for one year. I been to Japan and Mexico. My son father is Haitian and when females from his country comes over they give hugs and a kiss on the cheeks. The males and females all consider each other family. It just a big different from being African American most of us would be offended. If I had to work with Korean youth, I know they are giving more independence at young age. Americans are more protective over their youths. As a counselor, I knowing the norm of my client/ patient cultural, will help me communicate with the client. I can only do this by stating up today on the latest research,

Another key difference is related to how they perceive family dynamics. The family unit, including the extended family, is considered the most important social unit and support system. Excluding them in the decision process, will only increase the distrust of the patient with the health provider. A very specific social order and respectfulness goes along with age, gender, and social class. As an example, a grandmother is shown immense respect and if possible should be included in any medical decision. Gaining the trust of a Hispanic patient is very important. Hispanic patients need to believe they can trust their caregivers before they will discuss personal

Hispanics have various origins and come from different areas of the world. Whether it’s language, food, music, beliefs, or traditions, Hispanic culture is spreading across the nation and making an impact on our country as a whole. The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Model was developed in 1988. It is a way for nursing students to learn to assess and provide care for patients that were culturally diverse. The model includes six cultural phenomena: communication, time, space, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations. These provide a framework for patient assessment, and assist in competent culturally sensitive care in the medical field. In our presentation, we will discuss some of the key characteristics of Hispanic

Most of the patients were Hispanic and spoke only Spanish and some limited English. Since then, I spent two years in Fiji Islands working on a community health empowerment project for the Peace Corps. It was at this time I encountered cultural health practices so vastly different than my own, it took me two years just to begin to understand. Although most of the local beliefs were rooted in folklore rather than science, I had to learn to reach patients in a way that would continue to respect their beliefs while still providing health education they would understand. I believe this experienced has forever changed the way I view and understand the importance of providing culturally sensitive and competent care. I believe all people, from all walks of life, deserve access to adequate

According to US Census Bureau, Hispanic is one of largest minority ethnic group in the United States and account for 15.1 % of the population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). With an increasing number of diverse cultures within the health care system, it is important for health care professionals to cultivate diversity and cultural awareness when caring for peope from different cultures than theirs. Moreover, providing care that is culturally sensitive can result in improved health status for all patients. Clinicians should keep in mind that everyone has his/her own values, beliefs, and assumptions that influence healthcare. In addition, patients from different race, ethnicity, gender, and religion response to health care services differently.

Earning a patient’s trust is vital to their health outcomes and this will determine if the get fair care or great care. I intend provide an atmosphere that is devoid of judgement and prejudice for my patients. Another important point I learned from this encounter was that I should not assume that because someone is Spanish, they would have the same cultural practices as all Hispanics. This is not true and from this interview, I found out that it is not true. Unlike the woman I interviewed, I believe that though different members of the family have a role to play, sometimes anyone can play the other person’s role. In families where the father is not competent, the mother or one of the children can step and play a father figure to the family. This is necessary to not bring about disorder in the home. Having an incompetent father should not mean that the children will not be provided for. Regardless of roles in the family, I believe that everyone in the family should have a vested interest in the success of their family

For close to six months I had the privilege of shadowing Dr. Chu at a family medicine clinic where the majority of her patients were Hispanic. During that time, she became a mentor, as well as an exceptional role model of someone who showed genuine compassion to individuals not being able to afford health care treatments regularly. Beyond extending payment due dates and exuding concern and affection for patients’ families, she showed a level of commitment regarding cultural competence that resonates with me to this day. With her warm personality and fluency of the Spanish language I would repeatedly see noticeably reserved and apprehensive first time Hispanic patients become shocked and relieved to hear their doctor speak in their native tongue. By simply learning to speak their language I witnessed how a doctor can use medicine and cultural competence to help others in a more personalized way and further develop a greater level of trust. It is this same level of commitment and personalized care that I strive to use day in and day out while currently working as a EMT. Whether by smiling, bandaging, and telling a young person suffering from a sports-related head laceration injury that everything will be alright or simply transporting an elderly patient and holding their hand after a fall, I am certain that my efforts as a EMT are teaching me something new each day regarding

Cultural sensitivity in health care is a very important component that helps health care providers to give the best care according to the patient`s cultural background and needs. Being cultural sensitivity does not just mean giving medications and helping them physically, but it goes beyond that. Communicating with them in a manner that they will understand well and respond appropriately is very vital. For example, in Hispanic or African culture, talking to somebody looking straight into their eyes is very rude. But in American culture, it is interpreted differently. So, when taking care of patients like these, we should be very cautious because they will think of you as being mean and rude. “The key is to remember the patient`s cultural behaviors are relevant to health assessment and should be considered when planning care” (Barker & DeNisco, p.574, 2016). As I have worked with a lot of Hispanic patients for so many years, I have been motivated to learn more about them now. They are many behaviors that need to be put into consideration as these patients are being taken care of. Most people I work with misinterpret them as being rude but that is the way they talk or communicate. “May communicate intense emotion and appear quite animated in conversations a behavior that is sometimes misinterpreted by non-Hispanics as being “out-of-control.” (Nursing 322, p.18,2010). They are many other behaviors that they exhibit which help me