Essay On Cultural Competence

Relocating into a senior care facilities can be a frightening experience for the aging population. Getting familiar with new surroundings, new organization structure, and new people that can cause anxiety to rise. For a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer individual, this experience can be traumatic. The fear of harassment, hostility, and neglect by healthcare providers and caretakers can keep LGBTQ people from seeking care until their health begins to critically decline. LGBTQ cultural competency training is highly recommended for healthcare professionals and social service organizations. The greatest barrier that prevents quality health care for LGBTQ people is the lack of competence among the healthcare professionals.

Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person

Cultural competency is the capacity of people or services to include ethnic/cultural considerations into all aspects of their work related to health promotion, disease prevention and other and other healthcare interventions (Cultural competence is important for several reasons, (Purnell, 2008a).First, it can contribute in the development of culturally sensitive practices which can reduce barriers that effect treatment in healthcare settings. Second, it can promote understanding, which is detrimental in cultural competence assessment, to know whom, the individuals known as the primary care provider and whom they view as the primary healer, can attribute to the promotion of trust and increase the person’s interest in participating

People live very different lives. Culture is a major importance in everyone lives. Everyone has customs that they follow, and somethings are more bizarre than others. But it may be bizarre in one persons ' eyes, and be completely normal to another. Having the ability to understand one 's culture and heritage can really help you have a better understanding of where they come from. In the medical it is very important to understand where an individual is coming regarding culture. From understanding their language, to understanding what they are against in the world of medicine is a difference between life and death for some of these individuals.

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

Even though there was a change and an awareness on the LGBT community, many people still didn’t accept homosexuals. Gay individuals still faced discrimination, verbal abuse and physical violence. Despite this, the LGBT community continued to raise awareness and advocate for their rights. In 2011, the Marriage Equality Act which legalized same-sex marriage for New York residents, was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, making New York the 6th state to legalize same-sex marriage. It was said by many people including some religious leaders that this was a threat to traditional heterosexual marriage and family, “Marriage is a fundamental good that must be protected in every circumstance. Exemptions of any kind never justify redefining marriage.’...[it]...affirms the vital and unique importance to children of receiving care from both their mother and father together. ... Making marriage law indifferent to the absence of either sex creates an institutional and cultural crisis with generational ramifications yet to be seen’’.The LGBT community rejected those statements and developed legal arguments to battle the entrenched discrimination. Furthermore, the LGBT community began to hold a pride parade on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. This occurs in New York and other major cities around the world at the end of

Cultural competency not only encompasses race or ethnicity, but a quality of care for all individuals. Studies illustrate that cultural competency is currently lacking in the health care field; this results in the disparities that exist among the minority population with low

Cultural competence is the act of being respectful and responsive to the beliefs and health care practices of differing cultures. As someone entering the medical field, having a better understanding of different cultures is crucial to ensure that my interactions with others are not only respectful but are able to succeed in cross-cultural communication. For my interview, I chose to interview a friend of mine that is from a Hispanic background with English as her second language differing from me in that I come from an all-white family who all consider English as their first language. This interview provided me with the opportunity to look into what it is like to receive healthcare as seen by someone from a different culture as well as what

Culturally competent care has fast become a byword in health care with the increasing global migration of populations including healthcare providers topmost of whom are nurses. There abound a number of definitions of culture and competence in current literature provided by multiple disciplines and organizations. Lehman, Fenza and Smith (n.d.) refers to culture as “the learned patterns of behavior and range of beliefs” which includes ways of life, norms and values, social institutions attributed to a specific group and passed on through generations . While competence implies capacity to function and translates into behavior appropriate application of knowledge and attitudes. Giger and companions (as cited in Loftin, Hartin, Branson, & Reyes,

As the United States population continues to follow the trend of increasing diversity, the need for more culturally competent healthcare professionals increases as well. According to some of the leading experts in health care policy, cultural competency in health care can be described as the ability of systems and/or healthcare professionals to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors, including tailoring delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs (Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., & Carrillo, J.E., 2002). These researchers assert that there are essentially three specific barriers to cultural competency in the health care setting: lack of diversity in health care’s leadership and workforce, poorly designed systems of care that fall short of meeting the needs of diverse patient populations, and poor communication between providers

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

My understanding of Cultural Competence is having a good understanding of different cultures, knowing how to communicate with different people, interact with different people, skills & ability to deal with any culture difference, respect of differences etc. Communication is very important in providing the best setting & needs, there can sometimes be a barrier within languages spoken so as a carer you need to be patient, respectful, have the abilities to help with this situation, ask for help from another staff member & sometimes an interpreter may need to be bought in if the barrier is too strong.

After completing the “cultural competence checklist: personal reflection designed by T.D. Goode” for the first time, I was not surprised by my results. The results were a reflection of my personal understanding how culture impacts holistic care and my continuous need to improve my care. I have strived to become non-judgmental. I work to not let my personal beliefs and values influence my nursing care on decisions. When I practice this philosophy it provides better patient outcomes and promotes an improved understanding of cultural differences. This also enhances a safe and caring environment. “It is important for health care providers to recognize that care must be individualized and considerate of the cultural. Racial, and ethnic identity of the patients and their families” (Broome, 2006, p. 486) .There is much diversity in the beliefs and practices of the Indian culture and we should grant these individuals complete freedom to practice their personal cultural variations and the religion they choose.

These nine terms are all correlated and intertwined with each other. Without one, like culture, you cannot have the other, such as diversity. If one is going to work as a health care professional, they must know these terms and be able to respect the meaning of each one.

In studying cultural competence, it is important to acknowledge the fact that people were differently born, raised and lived in social, organizations and educational cultures. Therefore, the culture we are brought up to form a foundation on how we make assumptions, values, beliefs, values and behaviors. When people in an organization get to interact, there are many difference and similarities as pertains to their cultural expectations, and it often make the interaction between the employees be either challenging or exciting. Therefore, organizations contain people of that setting, and thus it is important to observe diversity for common understanding of one another (Barrera, 2010).