Cultural Diversty within Healthcare

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,

Cultural diversity in the health care setting is increasing each year. Knowing how to care for patients of different religious and spiritual faiths is essential to providing high-quality, patient-centered care. The author of this paper will research three lesser-known religions; Taoism, Sikhism and Shamanism. Through this paper, she will provide a brief background on each of the three religions and present information regarding spiritual perspectives on healing, critical components of healing and health care considerations associated with each religion.

Cultural competence, or the ability of health care providers to function well in different cultural contexts [7], has increasingly become a focus in U.S. medical schools. More schools are recognizing the growth in national diversity and the importance of having a health care workforce armed with knowledge of how to remain culturally sensitive and aware to provide the best possible care for all patients. According to Kripalani et al., research shows that cultural competence can improve communication and collaboration efforts between the patient and physician, thereby improving clinical outcomes, and eventually reducing health disparities [14]. Additionally, cultural competency has been shown to correlate with quality care to minority populations [15]. However, the strides made towards cultural competence of physicians have not been consistent across all medical schools as some medical students are trained extensively in this field while others are not trained at all. It would not be an easy task as it would require changing the entire curriculum and getting support from administrators [13], but the hope is to integrate cultural competence into all medical school curricula to arm future physicians with the tools they need to care for those of all different

The text list several factors that contribute to healthcare disparities, social, economic status, access to medical care, lack of insurance, unemployment, lack of knowledge of healthcare processes and procedures within society, transportation issues and many other factors that contribute to healthcare disparities. Being knowledgeable of cultural competency has several advantages, cultural competence provides relief to the patient when the patient feels comfortable with their physician a bond is developed and patients are less likely to file malpractice claims. Displaying cultural competency increases the quality of services and patient satisfaction.

Health care disparities in the United States occur on the provider level. The implicit biases providers are susceptible to help shape physician behavior and produce differences in medical treatment across a host of demographic characteristics but mainly along the lines of race and ethnicity. This paper focuses mainly on the relationship between providers and Black Americans. There is a complex and historical relationship between providers and Black Americans which dates back to the 16th century that is the basis for the biases physicians exhibit towards this particular minority group in today’s healthcare system. Contrary to popular belief, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1932 is not the forerunner to a host of medical abuses committed against

Miscommunication, medication errors, and lack of compliance commonly occur in the healthcare field. These are just a few of the errors that occur due to the patient being from a different culture than the physician or healthcare worker. Those three errors alone have a huge impact on our healthcare today. If we could have a better understanding of other cultures that are different from our own we could have a dramatic decrease in errors and a great increase in healthcare participation. Training must be completed and must be done in more than one way. The first step is to make sure that all physicians and health care workers get the same nationwide training that focuses on improving cultural competence. How this is completed must be done in more than one way (Horwitz, 2001).

As the diverse populations of the United States (U.S.) continues to grow the need for cultural competency in healthcare delivery requires culturally competent healthcare providers. Each population has its own particular norms and practices that guide their lifestyles; therefore, a challenge arises for health care providers to learn to provide culturally sensitive care to clients from diverse cultural backgrounds (Waite and Calamaro 2010). The ever changing population of the U.S. signifies a much needed change in health care delivery to different cultures. The U.S. Bureau of Census (1992) predicts that by the year 2020 only 53 % of the population will be of white European decent.

Cultural Competency, widely known as the ability to understand the differences between cultures and how one can assess and effectively respond to each patient’s cultural diversity. Cultural competency is something that can be applied far and wide to many different professions, but its importance is strongly present in the healthcare industry.

Overall, the health of Americans has improved over the past several decades. However, there is still an inconsistency between the health of various racial groups, minorities, and Caucasians (Cook, Kosoko-Lasaki, & O'Brien, R., 2005). Bakullari et al. (2014) report that specific research related to patient safety and racial and ethnic differences in HAIs is also lacking. As a result of these discrepancies, Bakullari et al. (2014) implemented a study to determine the rate and occurrence of HAIs in six specific racial/ethnic groups (white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and other). What they found was that Hispanic and Asian populations had a significantly higher occurrence of HAIs than white non-Hispanic populations (Bakullari et al., 2014).

There is nothing worse than being in physical pain or being ill. There are many diseases that often go untreated and this is due to people not going to the doctor. In the video Cultural Competence in Healthcare For Providers the patients interviewed knew little to no english. When they seek healthcare professionals it is because they feel ill or were hurt. When asked to reschedule some may not come back due to fear of the same situation. Cultural competency is not an optional skill to learn, it is a necessity for all dietitians and health care professional, regardless of their specialty (Curry, 2000; Sindler, 2001). When working with diverse populations we need to be able to help each and every single person when they are their most vulnerable

The importance of Cultural Competency when working with a diverse population within health care is extremely important. It’s a major part of health providers jobs to be respectful and mindful of their patients culture and or background. The health provider should acknowledge the patients beliefs, traditions and religion to be sure the patient is as comfortable as she or she can possibly be. After all the patient is seeking help because he or she is not feeling well or needs some sort of medical attention, so of course it should be the health providers best interest to not but more stress on the patient or make them more uncomfortable then what they already are. There can be a few pitfalls if a health provider completely ignores the patient’s

Cultural competence plays a significant role in health care delivery. There is a lack of cultural competence in the U.S. heath care. Despite current effort to deal with the issue, the problem still exist and many patients are suffering from it impact. Many people are not being able to get adequate care due to the lack of communication, languages, beliefs, values, perspective, and customs. Cultural competence barriers are critical in reducing health disparity. Those barriers include: lack of diversity in the healthcare settings, lack of system of care that can address the needs of various populations, inadequate communication between healthcare providers and patients of distinct ethnic, racial, language, belief, customs, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Most definitely, America is a melting pot, it’s amazing how much diversity there is. You’re correct “. In this industry, it is important to not be prejudice, racist, or to simply feel that your rights, views, or feelings are more important than anyone else.” As healthcare providers, your goal should be to meet the needs of everyone despite personal feelings. Teamwork is very significant when working in the health field, if that team can master the acceptance of culture differences it can lead to a positive wave throughout the rest of the organization. Yes, “To overcome any cultural or any other difference one must be culturally competent.” I feel all industries should practice being culturally competent, in working to improve health, communication,

In any case, providing competent care to a patient of a different culture must first start with an understanding of the culture itself (Potter & Perry, 2011). Culture is

Currently, the United States is experiencing a period of profound demographic change. Our nation is undergoing an inevitable transformation into a multiracial, multicultural society and this drift poses huge challenges for medical professionals. While it is well known that racial disparities consistently plague the health care system, the prominent issue is a lack of cultural diversity in the workplace. Health care experts have been stressing the critical need to develop a more diverse workforce as it is seen as a strong solution in achieving health equity and improved care. Evidence demonstrates that the scarcity of underrepresented minorities among physicians prevents appropriate cultural competence within the medical profession, limits the