Reflection Of Multicultural Clinical Experience

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.

Teachers should advocate for all students’ backgrounds and cultures to better their students’ learning. To accomplish this, teachers should be informed about their students’ home lives, be conscious of how and what they should be taught, and ultimately make their education a priority. Students from poverty in a multicultural classroom need the correct tools and teaching approaches from their teachers.

In my last year’s placement I had the privilege of Interning at the Veteran’s Affairs in the Spinal Cord Injury clinic. In the SCI clinic I worked closely with Veterans who had experienced spinal cord injury, which resulted in permanent paralyses such as paraplegia or quadriplegia. Ms. Cynthia Jackson was one of my clients that had an enormous impact on me. Ms. Jackson is 55 year old African American. Ms. Jackson served in the United Air force in the late 1970’s post-Vietnam War and was based in Germany. While serving in Air force, Ms. Jackson severely injured her back in tanker truck accident which resulted in paralysis in her lower exterminates. Ms. Jackson is wheelchair bond due to her paraplegia, client was referred to the SCI clinic for case management and counseling services.

Understanding the hierarchy of the family is imperative in understanding the functions of the family unit. With some familiarity with the different cultures in a given community, a medical professional will be able to ascertain who the head of the household is. The head of the household differs from culture to culture, as such, “misunderstandings which include but are not limited to the involvement of the male in all aspects of health care

Problem Multicultural disparities serve as a gap within the health care system. However, all remarkable leaders and or administrator share commonalities to try and bring about a resolution for multicultural disparities. In fact, an integral part of multicultural disparities stems from attitudes, no access to resources, health behaviors, and organization not validating a change is needed. More importantly, health disparities, continue to plague the population. Multicultural Health Care: A Quality Improvement Guide.

Openness, honesty and directness are essential components in open dialogue with multicultural clients in order to maintain a relationship of value. Miller (2015) describes open dialogue as an atmosphere in which dialogue is engaged in an open fashion in a therapy session. It includes the creation of an intimate environment where challenges related to racial and ethnic factors can be openly discussed (p. 311). For example, when treating an African American client who experiences depression and concerns for her/his safety, a counselor could consider how living in an underserved neighborhood where crime may be rampant has an effect on how one would go about their day. The client may fear for their life frequently and perhaps protracted efforts to find a job have been unsuccessful. The specificity of race in these circumstances could be the determining factor in the client’s depression and safety concerns. If the same client suffered from addiction, the therapist could reflect on how being a part of a minority group with a history of being sidelined and discriminated against could have, in part, enabled the addiction as a method of coping with life stressors.

Cultural competence can be used as a strategy to improve quality healthcare and help in getting over racial and ethnic disparities. It is only one solution to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in the healthcare systems. With that said many health care facilities are taking part in cultural competence. Although in this topic we are dealing with healthcare, cultural competence can be utilized within most businesses such as retail, the military and other government related jobs (Harris, 2011) as well as the food industry. With that said, Cultural competence has become a popular strategy within the healthcare world. Before I begin to explain how I would incorporate Cultural Competence into my work environment, I feel as though I must first explain what Cultural Competence is.

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 defined as “ an integrated pattern of human behaviour that include the language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, or social groups.”1 Competence refers to “the capacity to function effectively as an individual and an organization within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviours, and needs presented by consumers and their communities.”2

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

What is cultural competence? When reading our book and looking at scholarly articles for me to sum up what I think cultural competence is, I found myself rereading each definition over and over. To me cultural competence is understanding that each person is unique and their care should be as well. Truong, Paradies, & Priest (2014) state “cultural competency is a broad concept used to describe a variety of interventions that aim to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of health care services for people from racial/ethnic minorities”. It is important for a healthcare worker to not stereotype a person based on their appearance or race. Not all people that appear alike believe in the same things. In their article Patient-centered care:

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.

The term culture has a very broad definition that encompasses the values, beliefs, customs, religions, behaviors, traditions and the collective attitudes of a group of people (Williamson & Harrison, 2010). In 1971, Canada was one of the first countries in the world to adopt multiculturalism as a national policy (Government of Canada, 2012). Since then, Canadians have prided themselves on being accepting of cultural diversity and recognizing equal rights for all citizens, regardless of country of origin (Government of Canada, 2012). However, cultural diversity presents challenges for the health care system as people of various cultures have different expectations and requirements of healthcare (De Miao & Kemp, 2010). This is not an issue that is unique to Canada, but one that extends to all countries which encourage multiculturalism. Indeed it has been found that immigrants often experience declining health and dissatisfactory medical care compared to the native population due to issues in language, accessibility, social support, and familiarity with the health care system (Pollock, Newbold, Lafrenière & Edge, 2012; De Miao & Kemp, 2010). Therefore, there is an increased emphasis for nurses and other health care professionals to develop cultural competence. As I will show in this paper, working in a culturally diverse society requires nurses to adapt their caring strategies to cater to the cultural needs of their patients. I will then expand on how my own personal experiences

As a health care professional you should be aware of cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is the existence of different ethnic groups in the same society. It is important to be knowledgeable about cultural diversity so you can understand and respect someone else who has their own unique way of doing things in their life. The United States is one of the countries that have the most cultural diversity. One of the cultures that exist in the United States is the Mexican culture. Mexicans come from Central American Indians, Native Americans, Spanish, and Africans. The majority of Mexican immigrants live in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. However, Los Angeles has the highest Mexican population. People