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Cultural competence in health care importance
Cultural competence in health care importance
Cultural competency in healthcare
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Cultural competency can be described as the ability to interact with different cultures in a positive manner. Many cultural differences can become apparent in a number of situations. According to Fadiman, doctors have a moral duty to save lives even if they don’t agree with the values or beliefs of someone else’s culture (1997). This paper will address the topic of cultural competency, with a concentration on the importance of cultural competency in the medical field. It is hard to imagine how frustrating it may be to come across a patient that resists a professional’s opinion because they have solid beliefs or do not understand what doctors are attempting to convey.
They also need to know the various disease of the different populations they serve. “Cultural competency includes the capacity to identify, understand, and respect the values and beliefs of others.” (Culturally Competent Healthcare Systems,
Medical providers that have cultural competency will overall enhance the quality of care to a diverse group of patients. Having that cultural knowledge would help the medical provider make the patient feel comfortable ultimately increasing the chance for that patient to follow through or adhere to the medical provider's treatment plan. It would also allow the medical provider to help build a friendly nurturing relationship with all of his or her patients. Developing these friendly relationships with patients will help make the patient worry less about a difficult diagnosis and would give them hope that they could one day get better from it. When a medical provider is culturally competent they would know how to respond to certain medical scenarios
If nurses lack of understanding regarding community demographics and cultural differences, they can have unintentional bias, and stereotype patients due to a lack of awareness of the cultural demographics of the community they serve (Camphinha-Bacote, 2011). Cultural competence is the understanding of different cultures and how that impacts the provision of patient care. Cultural competence in nursing is defined as one willingness or the desire to understand a patient’s culture, the ability to learn about a defined cultures belief system, and to work effectively as a healthcare provider understanding the dynamics of the patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships and care (Kardong-Edgren et Al.,
Creating value through collaboration has been a topic of concern over the last 50 years as the spending in health care has increased. The goal is to provide quality and affordability and because of past efforts, enrollment increased drastically while it created a shortage of providers. Integrating behavioral and medical health has not been properly addressed due to stigmas and lack of education. Behavior health is more common today and costly. In efforts to integrate and improve patient outcomes and provider experiences there are many ways to achieve this goal such as train medical providers, train behavioral practioniers and embed behavioral providers in primary care settings.
Cultural competence is seen as being able to master a skill-set (Barlow, Reading, & Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, 2008) rather than analyzing power imbalances, institutional discrimination, colonization and colonial relationships (NAHO, 2006 as cited in Charlotte Loppie’s presentation). “Cultural safety emphasizes relationships of trust in which the patient determines whether the care is ‘safe’” (Barlow, Reading, & Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network, 2008, p. 3). I really like the term “relational care” introduced in the as the Barlow, Reading, and Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (2008) article as the term “is rooted in the connections within and relationships among Aboriginal people and health care providers” which is grounded in the traditional teachings and values of Indigenous Peoples (p.
Hi Moncy, I agree with you as you noted the increasing diversity of the nation brings opportunities and challenges to health care system, on the other side a culturally competent health care system helps to improve health outcomes and quality of care, which eliminate racial and ethnic disparities. foster advocacy for social justice and increase focus on global healthcare, the cultural competence class benefit diverse population to receive more satisfactory patient care, uplift social justice and increase global health as well cultural competency skills , make self-awareness among nursing workforce also provide an opportunity to staffing to learn and experience life from different perspectives and able to recognize each person has their own
For me, cultural competence is all about understanding the culture, belief and value of other people and your own. It is how we deal with our own and other people’s conviction. For one’s self, it is being culturally aware of how the world works and how each culture is different from each other. It is acquiring knowledge of other people’s customs and achieving cultural skills to share to everyone. It is our willingness to value other people’s way of life and accepting them openly.
The lack of cultural competency by physicians in health care settings is producing many barriers to health care that is negatively affecting Hispanic families, such as miscommunications, poor adherence to medications and health promotion strategies, and misunderstandings that lead to misdiagnosis or inadequate treatment for Hispanics. This issue is alarming because the Hispanic population makes up roughly 17% of the entire U.S. population, which is a staggering figure that can’t be ignored. Some solutions that have been tried in the past but failed include, establishing more community-based programs to assist this segment of the population, hospitals pushing for prevention programs, and greater efforts by health institutions on training physicians to improve all aspects of communication. Although
After taking the self-assessment survey for quality and culture, I would like to improve and understand how cultural competence can have a real impact on clinical outcomes. Taking from some of the questions I answered wrong, it make me wants to be cultural competent. There are a few questions I am surprised and shocked, that I answered them incorrectly. I do understand that with training, I will start to gain cultural competence but it will take consistent individual practice on my part to develop and maintain individual cultural competence. Cultural competence can lead to, health literacy, health equity, and fewer diagnostic errors, which might help the patient expand their choices and access high quality medical providers because patient
Development of a conceptual framework” that cultural competence is difficult to define and measure, but it can be demonstrated by adjusting healthcare practices and interventions in order to
Cultural competency: Indians Culture competency is defined as one has the knowledge, the abilities and the skill to deliver care congruent with the patient’s cultural beliefs and practices (Purnell, 2013). As a nurse or a health care provider, increasing ones consciousness of culture diversity improves the possibilities for health care practitioners to provide competent care (Purnell, 2013). Nurses and all health care providers should be aware of other cultures to provide the best care that they can for that individual. Developing a relationship with diverse cultural groups involves good interpersonal skills and the application of knowledge and techniques learned from the physical, biological, and social sciences as well as the humanities (Purnell, 2013). I am choosing to select the Indian culture for my first assignment.
(Universities Australia, 2011). The term cultural competence in health care refers to both the actions of the practitioner and their duty of care for the patient. This means that the care provided must be considered safe by the person receiving the care not the person providing it. (Victorian Government
Through my life experiences I feel I have gained a heightened awareness when it comes to critical perspectives in health and culture as it relates to understanding the sources of oppression and inequities within structures, policies, and practices (Getzlaf and Osborne, 2010). By default I was born African-American, which has given me a unique perspective into the inequities and social injustices that people in the minority or subset population face. If I am to be honest, being a minority in this country and experiencing first hand the issues of poverty and lack of medical insurance has made me sensitive to the issues that my patient’s experience.
As words, cultural competence may seem to mean, it does not deal cultural imperialism or ethnocentrism. It is not competing your culture with others to make yours to be obeyed and followed by others. However, it the act of understanding one another cultures, no blame, and no mistake attached to individual culture. This required having general standard of norms, which do not favor and harm any culture, to follow in an organization and let customers be a part of the decision making. For having good results, there must be a feeling of diversity in the organization (NCCC, n.d).
