Overseas Clinical Experience

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.

Language- it can be beneficial to people who want to work abroad, so they can learn something new as well as be able to converse with foreign people. Not only can it be beneficial to those people but to the rest of society as there are lots of different languages and cultures in society, so it can be a way of connecting people in the community.

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.

Culture shock is a term used to describe an individual whom experience stress, anxiety, or discomfort when they are placed in an unfamiliar cultural environment (9). There are many cases of student that travelled to foreign countries for studies, but for my experience when I came to Australia, I wasn’t really shock by the culture. When I arrive in this country, I could say that I was an open book, which I am still. As a future professional health practitioner learning and adapting to proper methods in healthcare, especially in Indigenous Aboriginal health centred care wouldn’t be a big challenge; and I would use what I’ve learn to help my patients effectively.

Critically analyse one of the main challenges, barriers, and enablers for cultural competence in health care when working in a cross-cultural environment.

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).

With its colonisation history, Aboriginal people has been the discrepant population on biological, socioeconomic, psychological, geographical and political aspects. These are believed to be the barriers accounting for a poor health outcomes and a low life expectancy comparing to the dominant Australian population. In narrowing the gap of inequality, cultural competency is, therefore, essential to provide Indigenous population a holistic patient-centred care by maintaining cultural safety and sensitivity.

Each individuals’ perception is unique and is molded by their experiences. We are constantly learning and developing through the events around us. When I have participated in unfamiliar experiences, I not only increased my diversity, but also learned profound lessons which have altered my perspective. Expanding my horizons is important to me, and CCOM offers a very diverse patient clientele. Working with these patients during medical school provides the unique opportunity to be exposed to all walks of life. No two patients are the same, and with all of the different facilities, specialties, geographic locations, and patient demographics, CCOM allows countless opportunities to diversify patient care. This type of exposure not only allows for

Generally, the Australian health care system is exceptionally reliable. Moreover, it is very easy to navigate, even for international students as well. The university that overseas students are attending can help them navigate the system. The university can also help students to decide what they need to attain so as to be covered in terms of health care during their time in

During the 1970's and 80's refugees in Australia originated from South East Asia and Latin America (Taylor J. 2004). Presently the UNHCR stated the majority of refugee's entering Australia are from South-West Asia, the Middle East and Africa (UNHCR, 2015). In Australia, the health care system has been influenced by the United Kingdom and other western regions. The focus is predominantly biomedical, with doctors considered to be the experts on our health. This differs significantly to non-western regions whose health focus is more on spiritual healing and traditional medicine (Germov,

Cultural diversity has different meaning to each and every one. Some of us considering cultural diversity to be acquired where for the others it’s a skill that they have to learn. It’s very important that the health care providers are knowledgeable and sensitive to cultural differences because they are the ones to deal with the patients of different background on a daily basis. Being cultural savvy will help them to give the best patient care. For that reason, health care workers must be especially aware that addressing cultural diversity goes above the values, beliefs, practices and customs. An outstanding medical professional has a good manner and makes patients feel comfortable and at ease during exams and treatments. Cultural knowledge is the skill to respond appropriately to people of different cultures, ages, races, religions, sexual orientations, abilities, and ethnicities, and embrace on the way that will allow a person to feel respected and valued. The article "Diversity & Cultural Competency in Health Care Settings" discusses diversity in health care environment, "A health care professional who has learned cultural competence engages in assistive, supportive, facilitative, or enabling acts that are tailor-made to fit with individual, group, or institutional, cultural values, beliefs, and life ways in order to provide quality health care. In other words, they demonstrate the attitudes and behaviors that enable them to effectively work with individuals with diverse

This clinical experience took place at Peyton Elementary School and Prairie Heights Elementary School. Kamille, Ben and I were to teach hand hygiene, covering your cough and brushing your teeth to three Pre-K classes. First we developed a lesson plan and teaching aid for our students. Then, we gathered supplies such as spray bottles, dye, subject specific coloring sheet and a dinosaur with large teeth and tooth brush. Kids Rock dentistry in Colorado Springs was nice enough to borrow us the dinosaur and also gave us activity books for the kids. When we arrived at Peyton Elementary School at 0800, we noticed it was a very nice school. We met the school nurse at the office where we signed in. She showed us to classroom where the children

6: What are the clear advantages of global professional experience and living for awhile as an expatriate citizen? What experiences do people who have had these opportunities take with them into the rest

Anderson, P. A., Gill, P. S., Greenfield, S. M., & Loudon, R. F. (1999). Educating medical students for work in culturally diverse societies. Journal of American Medical Association, 282. 875-880.

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