Cultural Influences Healthcare Perceptions

I chose this article because I find it interesting and of great help to any nursing and health care professional; I am Hispanic myself and constantly looking for better ways to help my community. I personally see my grandmother struggling whenever she needs to see her physician, as she sometimes does not understand what him and his staff are telling her. On another note nursing is an ever changing career and the Hispanic culture is growing at an enormous rate, becoming culturally competent does not only provide the patient with good care but can make the nurses’ job easier and more rewarding. I do feel that there should be more research on this subject; the best way to learn about a patient’s cultural beliefs is to ask the patient. I think that the population that the author intended to target is health care professionals; however, I know that any immigrant can benefit from reading this article.

The Chinese have a wonderful culture filled with beauty, strength, skill, and putting their family and society over their own wants. Sometimes it may be hard to understand why this culture or any other ethnic group pick choices that are different from ours but as future health care workers, an understanding of cultural beliefs does improve the relationship between worker and patient. For example, the concept of respect for authority or those older than you is one that all follow even if they are only American-born Chinese. When treating a sick Chinese elder, health care workers need to consider the possibility of a patient not informing the family of personal illness or an objection to put their elders in long-term cares. Healthcare workers may have to at times converse with only the males in the family because traditionally, the decision makers in a Chinese family are usually the males and the woman must go to them before choosing any type of medical treatment. Lastly, a Chinese patient may usually nod their head in agreement and, to a healthcare professional in the U.S, this means that they are receiving the information we are communicating to them. But what the patient is really doing is being polite and agreeing to what you are saying yet not retaining the information at all. Thus a doctor may need to address this issue a few days after the visit in order to not scare the patient away but instead encourage questions and make sure the information about their health

Culture has more than one definition. It can be defined as the language spoken throughout a group of people or even the beliefs practiced. In the professional field of nursing, nurses are required to do more than administer medication or change bandages on a patient. To be able to fulfill a nurse’s job requirements, a nurse must learn to be culturally competent. Cultural competency in the professional field of nursing means to care and respect the patient whether or not the health care provider is in agreement with the patient’s decisions.

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

Today’s society is a mix of all the nations, languages, traditions, beliefs and cultures. The diversity of values is what makes society stronger, interesting, more or less acceptable to some forms of foreign influence in one way or another. In general, the assimilation process into society goes with an intermittent level of success, cultural differences arise when dealing with certain aspects of life. In healthcare, people are interacting within very close physical distance, discussing intimate health details, present at the at happy (childbirths) or tragic (death) moments, where stress can bring patients and their families to an edge, those deep rooted cultural differences can be seen without any cultural shields.

An individuals ethnicity and culture is an integral part of their life that influences their perceptions of both health and illness (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). Culture is the accumulated knowledge, values, personal and social behavior, customs, language, and religious beliefs of an ethnic group that are learned and practiced. With this being said, with the rapid rise of individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds, being aware of the perceptions of different cultures is essential in providing culturally competent care. The purpose of this paper is to explore the diverse cultural background of the patient involved in one of the four videos that were allotted to choose from and discuss their perception of health and illness. Furthermore, the overarching

Since nurses make up the largest group of healthcare providers, nurses are affected more by the different cultures in our country. Agree that cultural competence should be a goal. It is up to nurses to try to properly take care of

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

Cultural competency is an important factor when working with patients in health care, however to be culturally competent, is to understand and communicate with your patient to feel cared for and understand that you’re there to help and not judge. Utilizing Cultural competency to your advantage to promote better results with patients that include, participation, learning, and higher attendance.

Before one can discuss the importance of cultural competency, we must first understand what it is. But is culture? Furthermore, what is competence? To answer the first question - culture is, “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). With that understanding, what is competence? Also, according to the same source, competence is “a sufficiency of means for the necessities and conveniences of life. Now that we have broken down these two words, I will be utilizing them together to introduce the importance and downfalls of its effects on the world's (more specifically America’s) healthcare system.

Linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity of Australia is continuously growing and overseas migrations now taken a huge part, approximately two-third, of Australia’s population growth in 2013. While settling in different country, adopting a new lifestyle and different culture would be a big challenge for the refugees and migrants. Thereby, they are at high risk of developing mental health issues through the whole process of resettlement as a result of the barriers of accessing psychological and physical supports, language problems, cultural isolation due to relocation and sudden changes in socioeconomic status. (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014; Government of Western Australia, 2017).

Cultural values in health care play a very important role in the outcome of ailment or diseases process of an individual. That is because people from the same culture share distinct characteristics which make them standout from members of other cultures. Those characteristics and values usually determine whether or not an individual seek professional care for the disease or comply with prescribed regimen, or care-plan. It is therefore important to recognize a strong bond between cultural diversity in healthcare, especially in nursing and the ability to not only to provide quality nursing-care, but also one that is culturally competent. A report by Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2001) revealed that nurses, and other healthcare providers, who provide health care to a culturally diverse population in different settings, need to be cultural diverse, and also be competent in order to eliminate ethnic healthcare disparities . Nursing care should be planned in such a way that