Cultural Competence Summary

I have learned that it is important that educators  and health providers be trained on cultural competency to understand the population they are serving. Marks, Sims, and Osher (King, Sims, & Osher, n.d.) define cultural competency  as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations" ( as cited in Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991). Health providers and educators should investigate demographic patterns or trends in the place where they live and work. This brings awareness of the types of cultures that they might come across when they are working with people. Organizations should integrate and implement policies that promote the value of  diversity, self-assessment, manage the dynamics of difference, acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of communities they serve (Georgetown  University, 2004). Georgetown University (2004) also stresses that culture competency grows gradually and is always open for improvement.

Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person

Cultural competency is the capacity of people or services to include ethnic/cultural considerations into all aspects of their work related to health promotion, disease prevention and other and other healthcare interventions (Cultural competence is important for several reasons, (Purnell, 2008a).First, it can contribute in the development of culturally sensitive practices which can reduce barriers that effect treatment in healthcare settings. Second, it can promote understanding, which is detrimental in cultural competence assessment, to know whom, the individuals known as the primary care provider and whom they view as the primary healer, can attribute to the promotion of trust and increase the person’s interest in participating

In the field of human services, “cultural competency” has become a common buzz meant to address in part the . The intention being, that workers are able to achieve some level of knowledge and training that prepares them to work with

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).

Cultural Competency Having cultural competency within an agency is invaluable because it informs how that agency provides its services to clients. Cultural competence is commonly defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable the system, agency, or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.” In practice, this means availing consumers of services that are both accessible and culturally responsive. For some clients, providing culturally targeted services provides consumers with a safe space and a means of healing. Equally important, clients can examine how their cultural identity may be impacting their physical and mental health.

As a health care professional, we are faced with caring for patients of different cultural and ethnic background. Researching and learning about the patient’s culture values, beliefs and practices is essential and remarks the ability to provide quality health care for the patient. “Organizations and individuals who understand their clients’ cultural values, beliefs, and practices are in a better position to be coparticipants with their clients in providing culturally acceptable care” (Purnell & Paulanka, 2008, p. 2). After completing the cultural competence checklist, I was able to identify some of my responses to the patient cultural values and belief practices. I will describe a summary of my assessment results, analyze

Cultural competency is an essential skill for family physicians because of increasing ethnic diversity among patient populations. Culture, the shared beliefs and attitudes of a group, shapes ideas of what constitutes illness and acceptable treatment. A cross-cultural interview should elicit the patient’s perception of the illness and any alternative therapies he or she is undergoing as well as facilitate a mutually acceptable treatment plan. Patients should understand instructions from their physicians and be able to repeat them in their own words. To protect the patient’s confidentiality, it is best to avoid using the patient’s family and friends as interpreters. Potential cultural conflicts between a physician and patient include differing

I believe I can improve my cultural competence by learning to understand the opinions of family members about the intervention process with older and elderly individuals. I enjoy helping and serving people, so it is hard for me to understand that some patients and families do not want to seek help. I need to learn to set my own opinions aside and be competent toward the wants and needs of the family.

Nursing is considered to be a noble and rewarding profession in the society. It is a unique discipline that serves to treat sick people in the community with compassionate care and by applying knowledge, skills and ethics, to promote the patients’ healing process. The role of nursing has been influenced by spiritual beliefs, religious practices as well as cultural norms and values. The culture is influenced by the valuable ideas of different philosophers over the past two centuries. As per Galanti "Culture is that it encompasses beliefs and behaviors that are learned and shared by members of a group" (Galanti, 2015). Basically, culture is the plan and set of rules, imposed by a society for the people to live successfully within that society.

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

Exposure to a variety of cultures and having an understanding of those cultures as a PA is highly beneficial for several reasons. Having this knowledge would enhance a PA’s cultural competency by broadening their perspective, making the PA more acutely aware of symptoms pertaining to cultural attributes, and improving their critical thinking skills, communication skills, and sensitivity. Exposure to various cultures provides greater insight into the perspectives of the individuals of those cultures. This insight contributes to understanding of individuals, and therefore, opposes judgment and promotes productivity. Furthermore, this understanding of individuals’ cultures can help PA’s to be sensitive and sympathetic when considering a patient

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

My understanding of Cultural Competence is having a good understanding of different cultures, knowing how to communicate with different people, interact with different people, skills & ability to deal with any culture difference, respect of differences etc. Communication is very important in providing the best setting & needs, there can sometimes be a barrier within languages spoken so as a carer you need to be patient, respectful, have the abilities to help with this situation, ask for help from another staff member & sometimes an interpreter may need to be bought in if the barrier is too strong.

Cultural competence is significant especially for group leaders since groups have so much diversity. “To provide competent supervision, supervisors must assist trainees in conceptualizing diversity issues, becoming aware of personalizations related to diversity, and generating diversity-competent interventions at all levels of group work interaction (Okech & Rubel, 2007, para. 4). Okech and Rubel (2007) researched the integration of cultural competency into the supervision of group work model (SGW). The SGW model focuses on the supervision cultivating the group leaders to be competent “on learning to meet the needs of individuals within a one-on-one relationship, as well as successfully understanding and intervening in subsystems and the group-as-a-whole