Cultural Competency

The EYLF proposes that cultural competency cannot be mastered but is something educators continually strive for; by respecting, understanding, engaging with and positively acknowledging and teaching cultural diversity within the childcare industry.

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.

To be a culturally competent practitioner you need to be aware of our own cultural influences and values, beliefs and practices. Culturally competent practitioner is regardless of the diversity within the setting, it is essential that children are exposed to different diverse languages, beliefs, practices, family structures and interaction styles that are encouraged to develop positive attitudes and differences. As well as striving to provide a consistent service who are open to difference and change. Culturally competent practitioner needs to explore ways, show different skills, show a wide range of knowledge and attitudes to make the world a peaceful place, who will make people grow and shine.

The current health system can be improved to further cater for Australian Aboriginals needs. When at a healthcare facility an Australian aboriginal should feel as if not only their physical well-being is being recognized but also there social, emotional and cultural well-being. Healthcare services should aim to provide the same quality of care to their indigenous patients and assist in giving them the best opportunities in life. I believe one way this can be done is through implementing health strategy’s that benefit the indigenous people. Throughout this essay the implementation of cultural competency training will be developed followed by my own reflections on how I would use this to aid my practice and how implementing this health strategy

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.

In this great nation we live in today that has been vastly increasing diversity bring so many great opportunities. But with these great opportunities there are also challenges that are continually looked over constantly. One of the challenges is our health care system that fails to deliver culturally competent services. Cultural competency helps to enable providers to deliver services that are respectful to diverse patients. This helps with patients own health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs. This is why this training is needed in every health facility. Many doctors go through this problem not understanding their patient’s needs. If I were a doctor I would use this skill. Certain racial and ethnic minorities receive poorer

The progress I have made on building cultural competence is I met this guy while I was at work, and he was telling about how his insurance won’t be able to cover for his visit to campus health. I suggested to him that maybe he change health care providers to someone who can possibly help cover more things than the one he has now. Also in one of my public health classes one of my teachers is having a luncheon with people who have HIV and I know if I go to the event I can get a better insight on what they are dealing with and find out ways to help them, since the luncheon is ran by an organization that helps people who live with HIV, or I could just give them support

I would have to rate our school between cultural precompetence and cultural competence depending on the year in question and even the time of year. We are aware that we have achievement gaps in our minority populations, particularly our African American and special education students. When test scores come back and we see the lack of progress for these special groups, we have meetings and provided professional development on differentiation and small group instruction. Only one year did I participate in a professional development where an expert on teaching African American led the discussion. Usually staff development sessions are more generalized.

Cultural Competency is a topic that resonates greatly with me, partly, because I am an immigrant myself; the biggest part, however, is that in the last 5 years I have been actively involved in the orphanage work around the world. I consider orphaned children one of the most vulnerable populations. The country I visited the most (may be 12-15 times) is Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

While examining the life of the Lee family, it was easy to identify that Hmong culture is much different than Western culture today. The Lee’s faced many adversities that not only affect their lives but the life of their ill daughter Lia. By analyzing culture, stigma, prevention, and implications, one can begin to see how the Hmong culture collides in the care of Lia.

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.

1. What is cultural competence for nurses? Cultural competence for nurses “is a combination of culturally congruent behaviors, practice attitudes, and policies that allow nurses to work effectively in a cross- cultural situations. (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2018, p. 74).

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

To work effectively in a foreign community, it is crucial that short-term nurses have an understanding of culture, belief system, and their lifestyles. Nurses needs to be culturally competence in order to provide patient centered effective healthcare. Culture competence is the ability of healthcare professionals to understand the social, cultural and linguistic needs of patients in order to provide effective health care (Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, 2004).   A lack of culture competence can lead to poor patient outcome. For example, if a nurse has a poor understanding of a diabetic patient's diet, and food preference, that could inhibit the nurse's ability to educate patient to manage the disease.

competence is an imperative aspect that practicing social workers need to employ when providing treatment to clients. Daniel’s treatment provider has to maintain cultural sensitivity when assisting him with obtaining a higher quality of life. Daniel’s ethnicity, age, sex, class, and veteran status require that the treatment provider have knowledge regarding Daniel’s diverse cultural background. Treatment providers that are working with specific populations such as the military must acquire knowledge surrounding the experiences of military personnel, families and children (Cederbaum et al., 2014).