The Importance Of Beliefs And Life Experiences

Cultural competence in health care describes the ability to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors, including tailoring health care delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural and linguistic needs. The need for healthcare systems to increase cultural competence and personalize care for ethnic patient minorities should not be ignored. Healthcare systems should promote better understanding and communication between diverse ethnic patients and caregivers. Hospitals should design a system that caters to the needs of all the populations they serve and not just apply a one-size-fits-all approach. Becoming a culturally competent health care organization is a critical component in reducing health care disparities.

1. Describe personal attributes you possess or life experiences you have had that will enable you to better understand patients with a culture different from your own. Please include your self-reflection on how this experience has changed your insights, beliefs, and/or values. (1000 characters)

Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García differentiate cultural humility and cultural competence based upon the longevity involved in the pursuit of expertise in both concepts. They insinuate that cultural competence is based primarily on facts that generalize the behaviors of minorities and low-income populations receiving health care services. On the contrary, cultural humility places more importance on the provider’s personal awareness of their response to the individual needs of patients without constricting guidelines that overlook challenges involved in meeting their health concerns. Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García mentioned that there is not an adequate amount of medical training aimed towards exposure to diverse populations.

Cultural competency is becoming essential in American healthcare with the increasing and diversification of immigration. The Department of Homeland Security, 2014 statistics indicates over 750,000 immigrants received naturalization in the US. These naturalized citizens represent over 20 countries varying from Hispanic, Indian, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures. A change in the way American healthcare treats these cultures is necessitated to provide efficient care and achieve positive outcomes. Douglas et al. (2014) guidelines are to empower patients to help diminish the inequities of their own healthcare. The guidelines for culturally competent care are meant to guide the nurse, nurse educators, and nurse managers in their competent treatment of persons of other cultures. These guidelines mandate a nurse use education, self-assessment and reflection, and diversification of the workforce to meet the demands. The ten guidelines are knowledge of culture, education and training in culturally competent care, critical reflection, cross-cultural communication, culturally competent practice, cultural competence in health care systems and organizations, patient advocacy and empowerment, multicultural workforce, cross-cultural leadership, and evidence-based practice and research.

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

Working as a Case Manager (CM) for a Medicaid-based Health Insurance has brought me in contact with patients of varied cultures, languages and races. As a CM For Metro Plus Health Plan, my responsibility is to teach High Risk pregnant women about their diseases, encourage them to stay in care with their Primary Care Physician/Obstetricians, explain the importance of taking their medications as prescribed, and adhering to all their providers plan of care, with the goal of encouraging these patient’s to become responsible and active participants in their own care. I have been able to directly observe as a clinician, how cultural competence can positively impact not only the relationship between my patients and I, but also the level of care I am able to provide.

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).

As the United States becomes more and more culturally diverse one cannot help but be exposed to various cultures and worldviews. America has long been called the melting pot, and that term has never been truer than it is today. According to Green and Reinckens (2013) the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by the year 2041 the U.S. population will be a majority minority. In other words, less than half of the population will be non-Hispanic, single race Caucasian. This growing diversity makes cultural competence in healthcare a necessary

As the diverse populations of the United States (U.S.) continues to grow the need for cultural competency in healthcare delivery requires culturally competent healthcare providers. Each population has its own particular norms and practices that guide their lifestyles; therefore, a challenge arises for health care providers to learn to provide culturally sensitive care to clients from diverse cultural backgrounds (Waite and Calamaro 2010). The ever changing population of the U.S. signifies a much needed change in health care delivery to different cultures. The U.S. Bureau of Census (1992) predicts that by the year 2020 only 53 % of the population will be of white European decent.

My experience interacting with minorities and medically underserved individuals has taught me cultural competence by gradually learning the capacity to understand other people’s experiences and sufferings in a way I never had before. By working in family and free health clinics, and volunteering as an EMT and a hospice aide, I have personally seen some of the health disparities found in our world. I have witnessed how a lack of insurance, monetary income, or health education affects one’s decision to attain primary health care. Furthermore, my experiences with emergency medicine teams serving culturally diverse communities have helped me to be able to see how healthcare professionals handle crises while not losing the ability to think logically and rationally when striving to treat people’s illnesses, instead of focusing on their

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

I hope that with my personal beliefs and culture that I will be able to give exceptional care to those whose cultures differ from my own. I am very much a people pleaser and I would try my best to keep everyone happy and comfortable. I think that this comes from my culture of being a millennial. While I am not necessarily knowledgeable about other culture’s practices, rituals, and beliefs, I would try my best to make sure that my patients were taken care of in a manner that protects their health and respects their culture, religion, or race.

Respect, effective communication, empathy, and morality are the cornerstones of cultural competency. Healthcare professionals are advocates for patients and learning the beliefs, behaviors, and being sensitive to other’s way of life is critical in patient care. Obstacles for culturally competent care include xenophobia, prejudice, bigotry, stereotyping, as well as an aversion or misunderstanding of western medicine within the US healthcare system due to an unfamiliarity or a lack of knowledge of practices. It is imperative that one puts their own judgements and assumptions aside, a positive rapport is built, and effective communication is always achieved when caring for patients to ensure the best possible care is given. It is a healthcare

Improving diversity in health care setting is important in patient care. Cultural competence is approach to enhancing healthcare delivery that has been promoted broadly in recent years. By definition cultural competence in health care describes the ability of systems to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors, including tailoring delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs (Betancourt, Green, & Carrillo, 2002) .The increasing diversity across the nation could create many challenges for health care providers .As the United States becomes a more racially and ethnically diverse nation, healthcare systems and providers need to

It saddens me to read how so many patients have limited access to services due to their ethnic background. While our nation is known for its diversity, we still have so many patients being denied access to services because they are not proficient in the English language. This article reinforces how culture and beliefs play a large role in establishing what is normal for a particular ethnic group. Each culture may view and deal with a situation differently or find certain means more acceptable than others. As providers, it is essential that we understand these variances to help minimize inequalities between cultures. This article highlights how every patient deserves to be treated equally and have equal access to services and