Reflective Account On Cultural Competence

Q 5 – Explain how diversity impacts on practices and experiences on person behaviour, interpersonal relationships, perception and social expectations of others.

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

Simply put, the United States is a diverse country. It is common knowledge that this a country founded upon immigration. Moreover, with the advancements in transportation and the growing trends toward globalization this course is more than likely to continue – barring any radical governmental intervention. That is why cultural competency is so vital, especially when it comes to healthcare. Because the sad fact is, not all ethnic groups receive the same level of care (Kittler, Sucher & Nelms, 2017). As a healthcare provider you should give your patients the best care possible, and that can only be achieved when you are accommodating to different needs. There is no place for ethnocentrism in today's world, and healthcare

After reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman, is an interesting book because it talks about the Hmong culture and their believes in medicine. A lot of cultures have their own way with handling medical issues, whether it is with some sort of herbs or whatever that culture uses to help the sick. In the book it’s about a little girl that suffers from having seizures and how the family is trying to use their cultural believes but also uses Western medicine to stop the seizures. It’s really hard for different cultures to assimilate to the American way because they do not fully understand what they’re trying to do which is helping their daughter. They want the help of the doctors but not too much because they still have

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.

It entails an awareness of the physical, social, spiritual and cultural needs of the patient. By so doing, it can help facilitate a more perceptive approach to the expectations of the patients. Hence, it will lead to the provision of a more culturally sensitive approach to the delivery of care. As a result, it will lead to an enhanced understanding and improved patient care. However, in the story it did not end up as expected. A tragic consequence that had a huge possibility that it could have turned out differently makes it especially so. Looking back on how old this book was written, there are several changes that are embraced within the medical arena with respect to cultural diversity. Demographic differences are now given weight as well as spirituality which is reckoned to be essential especially to the holistic approach to providing healthcare, one that embraces the mind, the body and the

The purpose of this paper is to explore the Hispanic, Filipino, and Caucasian cultural beliefs of health traditions, promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health. Explained later are several different families whose different health traditions are influenced by their perception of their own cultural heritage. The evaluation of these different cultures reveals similarities and differences in traditions within heritage groups that express a wider cultural awareness and understanding. The true definition of cultural awareness is an understanding between individual attitudes to health and other cultural principles (Cultural awareness, n.d). To care for culturally different people one must be culturally competent. Cultural competence refers to knowledge and understanding that must be fully comprehended to care for culturally different people (Spector, 2008).

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).

I have implemented this process in my practice by making sure that I am not prejudice, discriminatory, or impose my cultural beliefs to my patients or families. I try my best to use both subjective and objective findings to give the appropriate cultural care needed for each patient. Goals and the plan of care are discussed with my patients, their families, and with my colleagues each shift. I try to constantly evaluate if the goals and plan of care are being met or in progress. Occasionally the plan and goals need to change, and that is why the constant evaluation is important.

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.

Over the past four months, this course has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had during my first year of college. Although I have always realized the importance of being culturally competent in daily life, specifically healthcare, I was unaware of the many ways that cultural competence can be obtained. This class gave me the opportunity to view situations from a different perspective, especially through the weekly discussion boards and peer responses. Learning from classmate can teach more valuable lessons than listening to boring lectures or reading hundreds of pages in a textbook because it is easier to relate to experience rather than hypothetical situations. For example, one of the discussion boards asked us to detail

Cultural Competency: The ability to understand, appreciate and interact with persons from cultures and/or belief systems other than one 's own.

Despite the fact that intercultural competence has different terminology when referring to disciple or approach, it can also relate to the debate about global citizenship. Intercultural competence is seen as the capability to develop an objective knowledge, attitude, and skills that prompt visible behavior and communication that are both successful and appropriate in intercultural interaction. In other words, intercultural competence is a range of different skills; cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills that lead to communicate effectively and suitable with different surrounding and culture. Intercultural competence can also be broken down into three constituent elements seen as knowledge, skills, and attitude. (Deardorff, 2006) With that being said, knowledge is my substantial weakness while skills and attitude are my strengths regarding intercultural competence.

Cross-Cultural Leadership Competence.Cross-cultural leadership competence involves sufficient knowledge about the skills, actions, and motivations of other leaders and followers that may function from the perspectives endorsed by, prevalent in, or specific to different nations (MirHosseini&Ghanbari, 2011).Cultural uncertaintyis a reflection ofthe abilities of team members to display patience, tolerance, and flexibility in multicultural and intercultural situations that may involve ambiguities and uncertainties stemming from cultural differences. Cultural empathy is thecapacity to behave inquisitively with respect to others’ cultures, display the communication patterns of others’ cultures, and express a non-judgmental appreciation for the variety

Be aware, acknowledge and challenge my cultural assumptions/prejudices, be-liefs and values. By getting to know/learn about food, cultural celebrations, tradi-tions, language, dress, rituals is important in being culturally competent but NOT the only/most important part of being cultural competent. Most important part of be-ing cultural competent is ‘Managing Prejudices’ - all of us and everyone of us have some form/type of prejudice towards certain group of people (who are deemed different from us). Some people are uncomfortable with people who are skinny, have tattoos, have darker/lighter skin etc. Personally I find it difficult to work with people who have tattoos and it makes me ineffective in my deal-ings/interaction with them. To manage