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
Cultural competence is very important in providing patient care. Culturally competent providers should understand and respect the patient’s beliefs, values, and behaviors, and develop a treatment or care based on the patient’s specific needs. Being a healthcare professional requires you not only to assess, diagnose, and make a treatment plan, but also take into account patient’s beliefs and perception of their health-related issues. Nowadays, there is more emphasis on educating healthcare providers to not only focus on disease and diagnosis, but also incorporate assessment of patient’s experiences, feelings and perceptions of his or her disease into a patient care. I feel that most of the younger generation healthcare providers try to explain the disease and treatment to the patient and hear what is the patient’s perspective on it to ensure that a patient is part of the healthcare team.
In general, Culture competence is a very important factor that influences a person 's culture, values and beliefs. Also, it considered a step for learning about the various cultures and forming background about many cultures. In addition to that it has a major role in nursing field which is developing the method of providing care. In other words, the main target of cultural competent health care services is providing the highest level of care to every patient, regardless of race, ethnicity, cultural background, English proficiency or literacy (Health Policy Institute). In this case, we faced multi opinions toward culture competence in nursing.
Culture diversity Sensitivity is important when dealing with Mexican patients for they tend to be very private and always need to feel respected. It is important to explain what must be done to them first and why it must be done. Mexicans already have the upmost respect for health care providers so by doing this will only help build their trust. Language is another thing to look out for not just for competence, bot also the cultural meaning people attach to it. Culturally congruent care is meaningful, supportive, and facilitative because it fits valued life patterns of patients (Potter
Cultural Competency means you are "pro-active in promoting cultural diversity and Seek opportunities to improve cultural relationships" (Cultural Competency by Brannon). Cultural competency in the health care sector is vital to giving accurate health care given the vast array of races, cultures and ethnicities we live among. If a healthcare practitioner were culturally inept, they are unable, unwilling or lack the skills to become competent in understanding and embracing cultural differences. As it pertains to healthcare, we can't apply treatment and diagnostics with a broad brush. We have to be able to take deeper look at everyone's culture, background and understand lineage and inherited characteristics.
However, this does not coincide with being culturally competent. Health care providers must be open to different approaches to the same problem and be willing to investigate all options to come to a conclusion that takes into consideration the patients cultural beliefs (Kodjo,
Having a sufficient knowledge of ones cultural needs, could lead to the understanding of effective healthcare of the people; in furtherance of the foregoing leading effective to quality healthcare services. Nurses are expected to practice in a way that is subtle to the sensitivity of culture of the service users, families, communities and team members (The Code, 2015, sec 7.3). Health services show the need for health care organisation to cultivate policies, standards and practices to offer culturally competent care. In becoming a cultural competent in the practice, Cross et al (1989) suggests five absolute necessary aspects that need to be considered. These are: valuing diversity, having the capacity for the cultural self-assessment, being conscious of the dynamics inherent when cultures interact, having an institutionalised cultural knowledge; and lastly, is having to develop an adaptations of services delivery reflecting an understanding of cultural diversity.
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.,
Cultural competency has the potential to reduce inequities in access to health services and improve the health status of diverse cultural
Cultural competence affects the patient and healthcare professional positively. Healthcare professionals can gain knowledge and skills to tailor to a patient’s satisfaction. A study by Soulé (2014), identified awareness, engagement, and application as the fundamental components of cultural competence in a health care workforce and health care system. Awareness can be likened to mindfulness of self and others. A health professional should understand their own culture, such as their naturally occurring stereotypes.
Perhaps the best first step, and simplest, in response to the lack of cultural competency is for physicians in health care settings to place greater emphasis on cultural sensitivity and awareness trainings to improve treatment for Hispanics. The emphasis on this solution is an important starting point that will help increase the effectiveness of future initiatives in health care. Emphasis on cultural sensitivity and awareness is most efficacious in resolving cultural competency because the solution is both practical and simple. By providing training programs within health care settings that specifically focus on cultural sensitivity and awareness, physicians will learn to respond effectively to their Hispanic patients’ needs that show knowledge of their cultural differences. “One-size-fits all” types of prevention and treatment models cannot be applied to Hispanic patients and expect beneficial outcomes, thus “the challenge is for physicians to move beyond their belief systems and values and expand their world views to validate how others function”
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
Cultural competence is very important in providing patient care. Culturally competent providers should understand and respect the patient’s beliefs, values, and behaviors, and develop a treatment or care based on the patient’s specific needs. Being a healthcare professional requires you not only to assess, diagnose, and make a treatment plan, but also take into account patient’s beliefs and perception of their health-related issues. Nowadays, there is more emphasis on educating healthcare providers to not only focus on disease and diagnosis, but also incorporate assessment of patient’s experiences, feelings and perceptions of his or her disease into a patient care. I feel that most of the younger generation healthcare providers try to explain the disease and treatment to the patient and hear what is the patient’s perspective on it to ensure that a patient is part of the healthcare team.
Individual cultures and belief must be recognized and respected. Cultural understanding is the extensive logic to be cognizance, attentive and application of information and knowledge associated with ethnicity, culture, gender, or sexual coordination in clarifying and appreciative circumstances and reactions of individuals in their environment. Critical assessment on each of the patient individually is very important and cultural assumptions concerning patient 's beliefs or health practices should be avoid. Several areas should be considered when assessing cultural beliefs of patients, such as individual insight of illness and management, the social organization comprising family, communication activities, pain expression, general health care beliefs, previous experience with care, and language. Cultural practices associated with nonverbal communication in the course of conversation are very important.
The way a person thinks about health, “whether that is our ‘philosophy’, our ‘worldview’, our ‘framework’ influences what we do as individuals in practice,” as well as how we deliver the health service. These elements allow us to think about healthcare in our own culturally acceptable way, this isn’t always an acceptable way of delivering the service to people with views different to our own. Cultural competence is an approach that aids in influencing the service and the education of healthcare professionals. (Taylor, K., & Guerin, P., 2010). Cultural competence is defined as a knowledge and understanding of cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in a cultural context congruent to the expectations of the people of that culture.