Cultural Reflection

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 can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and

This caused me to think about various aspects of cultural diversity that are fundamental while dealing with clients. The information I gathered was key to my path to becoming a culturally competent occupational therapist in various ways. First, the idea of viewing patients from culturally and linguistically diverse community from various perspectives is new to me, and I intend to incorporate it into strategies with my potential clients by taking each individual as unique and distinct from the other hence serving them better. Secondly, the information on cultural competency being a dynamic and complex process requiring continuous expansion of personal, cultural know-how and self-evaluation was new. I intended to incorporate this while dealing with potential clients by continuous interaction with people from distinct cultures to be acquainted with knowledge on how best to serve the needs of each person

Cultural Competency can be described as one’s ability to learn about cultures other than their own. It speaks to the value one places on diversity and their desire to foster an open exchange of ideas between dissimilar cultures. While in a perfect world, cultural competency would be of heightened importance in all aspects of life, there are certain industries where cultural competency factor more heavily; one of those being health care. This is especially true in areas with increased diversities of cultures, ethnic groups and a variety of languages.

Campinha- Bacote and colleagues describes the components for cultural competence in healthcare. These includes cultural ; a) knowledge, b) awareness, c) skills, d) encounter and e) desire. Cultural awareness refers to self-examination as well as in-depth exploration of an individual cultural as well as professional background. I am able to explore my own cultural healthcare values and beliefs. This is because understanding another person's does not guarantee that one will become cultural competent. I am now able to use the cultural awareness assessment to assess my personal level of cultural awareness, and to get an insight on the understanding of my cultural values and beliefs

Cole Moore: I thought that Cole’s introduction was very professional and got straight to the point of what his group was discussing. The idea of combining the themes of the military, patriotism and one’s heritage was very impressive and caught my attention. Also, tying it to the themes of the red convertible was very interesting! While the presentation was amazing, I was confused as to what was the artifact. It seemed as if you talked more about general themes rather than close reading the design on the jacket. Nevertheless, you did an amazing job presenting.

The Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) is a theoretical framework used by occupational therapists to help guide practice (Cotton, 2012). Moreover, the MOHO’s framework helps form a picture of the client by utilizing 4 concepts’ that include the clients’ motivation for occupation, the routine patterning of their occupations, the nature of their skilled performance, and the influence of the environment on their occupation (Forsyth et al., 2009). These 4 concepts’ influence the formation of an occupational Identity which is a key construct within the MOHO (Forsyth et al., 2009). Furthermore, an occupational identity is the cumulative sense of the clients’ identity based on the occupations they engage in, their personal experiences and who they want to become as an occupational being (Forsyth et al., 2009). The formation of clients’ occupational identity is based on a sustained pattern of occupational engagement, which is called occupational competence (Forsyth et al., 2009; Walder & Molineux, 2017a).

After taking the cultural competence self-test assessment from the intercultural engagement resource, I feel that I am more culturally competent than most but I still have more learning to do. This assessment helped me realize my place on the trajectory to being cultural competent. I am a strong believer that people are more receptive to their own culture, so I try to adapt to other cultures by learning things about it. I never intentionally try to impose my values on anyone that may be inconsistent with their culture. By taking care of patients from different cultures, it opened my eyes and made me realize medical attention and health education varies amongst different cultures. After taking the survey I also learned to be a culturally competent nurse, I must not show any bias to my own culture. The assessment helped me examine my own biases and prejudices toward my own cultures and others. This assessment also helped me identify areas in which I need to improve to provide quality services to diverse

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.

Great job on the discussion post. I am in agreement with you that in order to be culturally competent professionals; training, self-awareness of our own culture, as well as others is a necessity. O’Hare, (2016) writes that in order to be a culturally competent practitioner “a genuine awareness of one’s own cultural background…as well as learning about the client assimilation and acculturation challenges” (p.25).

Cultural responsiveness is an ever-present challenge faced by professionals in our field. Due to the opportunities and freedoms our nation offers, the influx of diverse individuals and accompanying challenges will only increase. Culture is a lens through which we each filter our personal experiences. Because each of us possess our own implicit biases, it is critical that as clinicians we routinely conduct self-assessments in order increase our awareness of them. Throughout my practice and clinical training I have continually conducted personal needs assessments to target potential areas for personal growth. I believe that my efforts to do so have furthered my mission to provide culturally sensitive services.

Culture diversity includes gender, faith, sexual orientation, profession, age, socioeconomic status, disability, ethnicity and race. As a future health care provider as an occupational therapy assistant, I will have to understand and apply the value of cultural sensitivity that will allow me to understand and work with individuals from varieties of cultures other than my own. Being able to accept the cultural differences and the ability to adapt is an important skill to inherit to develop a strong relationship with your patients and maximizes the quality of care for your patients. Majority of the patients that comes for therapy are either lower class or middle class working individuals who got hurt during work. Coming from a lower class and middle class family, I understand how important their job is for them to support their family. It motivates me to provide them the best therapy that I can possibly offer in order for them to recover and get back to work as soon as possible. By understanding and knowing the value of each culture, it will benefit and assist us to provide quality care for our patients and at the same time being respectful and appreciative of cultural diversity in the

Cultural competence is focused on learned behaviors and actions and can be pertain and individual, organization or policy (Oelke, Thurston, & Arthur, 2013). Ideally, a healthcare providers’ practice would only be influenced by the individual patient and/or the community of which the patient resides. But in reality, the healthcare providers’ practice and care is influenced by many entities, such as the

The cultural assignment allowed me to gain a new perspective on the differences of others. I have grown up in a household of dissimilar belief systems. My mom is a dedicated Christian while my dad is unassociated with any religious beliefs. Though, he grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness. There differing belief systems have been the cause of various conflicts within their relationship. I often wondered if people with contradicting beliefs could effectively and peacefully discuss their belief systems. This cultural experience showed me that a peaceful discussion is possible between individuals of dissimilar beliefs.

(Origin) When thinking about my family and our roots I identify my family’s places or origin as Germany and Ireland. A majority of my family is of German ancestry and the one exception is my grandmother and she is Irish. I identify these too places as where my family came from due to stories that I have hear from family members and to the traits that each member of my family carries. A majority of my family are all blonde hair, with blue or brown eyes which have a lot of similarities to people from Germany. My family as very few of the traits from the Irish side but the only ones the I have been told are that some people in our family freckle a lot