Cultural Competency

Cultural competency is critical in psychology practice. In the United States, the groups, which considered as cultural and ethnic minorities, are growing in the population (APA, 2003). Culture often influences the content and quality of people’s experience, perception, and response. Thus, it is important for psychologists to be aware of cultural influences on client’s presenting experience(s) (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). Without a regard for cultural influence, there is a significant risk for the psychologist to misunderstand, misinterpret, and misguide his or her client. Such misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misguidance are not only unhelpful but can be detrimental for the client (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011; Pope, & Vasquez, 2011).

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 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.

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

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.

Some of the author’s major points are the lack of understanding of what cultural competence really means which is bringing confusion about ways it can be utilized in the social work field. The confusion of the utilization of cultural competence is leading to the lack of consensus concerning the effective training that providers should obtain and the population being served with the cultural competence skills lack clear description. According to the author, the most popular cultural competence intervention in the healthcare system is the cultural competency training which is for health care providers and the two approaches that have been utilized in creating the intervention are; the programs aimed at improving knowledge which is group specific,

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 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.

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.

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 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.

Competency is something education and care services and educators strive for constantly. It is what a service must demonstrate to prove it is meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard. But there is a special type of competency that all services must achieve to deliver high quality education and care to all children—cultural competency. Cultural competence is an essential practice of both the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Aged Care—My Time, Our Place. It is based on the principle contained in both frameworks—respect for diversity. Can educators and services ever truly become culturally competent? Many would say that achievement of this competency is always just beyond grasp. That is why the

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.

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

Organisational culture is shaped not only by technologies and markets, but also by the cultural preferences of its leaders and employees.Each organisation have different fundamental about how they operated base on their beliefs, values and activities.Culture is a key component in business which have an impact on the strategic direction of the organisation that influences management, business decisions and organisation functions such as meetings, negotiation and formalities.Therefore organisational culture is related to behaviour, ethics, etiquette that included as an organisation’s values, hierarchical system, working style, beliefs and habits.The rising presence of globalisation have led to a more global market which means that its mandatory for an international organisation to be aware of cultural differences.Fons Trompenaars argued that there are universal dilemmas or problems that every country and the organisations within that country faces ;relationships with people, time and in relations between the individual and the natural environment. It just how different cultural nations approach these dilemmas that at the end would lead to the same kind of response.