Cultural Competency

Dr. Galanti provides insight into the relationship between cultural diversity and heath care providers. Dr. Galanti’s briefly states the difference between “stereotype and generalization”. The author recognizes that generalization may be a key factor used by workers in the health care community to bring awareness and a better understanding of cultural differences among patients. The article explains that although cultures differ in values, traditions, and beliefs, there are questions (the 4’C’s of culture) that may open up the line of communication, between provider and

“Why is it crucial as a student to learn about cultural competency”? The reason is due to the increasing cultural diversity in the United States. This increasing cultural diversity in the United States has resulted in the national health objective proposed in Healthy People 2020: achieving the highest level of health for all people by addressing societal inequalities and “historical and contemporary injustices” (Giddens, 2013, pp. 33). The belief is that all people deserve quality health care and access to care no matter what culture the individual may be. Giddens states that culturally competent care means conveying acceptance of the patient’s health beliefs while sharing information, encouraging self- efficiency, and strengthening the patient’s

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.,

The article that I chose is Improving Cultural Competence to Reduce Health Disparities for priority Populations. This topic is relevant to social work because it is talking about cultural competence in the health care system and the one major skill that social workers need is cultural competency. This article is also relevant to social work because it talks about the importance of cultural competence in reducing disparities through culturally sensitive and unbiased quality care and since the social work field is all about treating everyone equally and fairly, this article falls right under its relevance. It continues to talk about programs to improve the knowledge of providers on cultural competency and general approaches that have been utilized in creating educational interventions to address cultural competence. This is great because social workers are never done learning, it is always important to train social worker on how to be culturally competent, specially because the populations being served are very diverse therefore, there should always be a way to train service providers on how to have cultural awareness.

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.

Mexican culture has been characterized in literature by an accepted framework of values: familism, respeto and simpatia (respect and congeniality), curanderismo (folk healing), religiosity/spirituality, and the importance of language are among the most important. In a typical Mexican family, the father is the breadwinner/decision maker also known as a machismo. There are positive and negative ways people see this; the man in the family holds great responsibility, whilst still seen as rough around the edges. The mother falls under the caregiver role, whom force holds the family together and shares cultural wisdom. Family is an important value in the Mexican culture.

It trains health care providers to overcome cultural barriers like communication and language. Cultural competency has the potential to reduce inequities in access to health care services and improve the health status of cultural communities by reducing healthcare disparities. The goal of cultural competency is to provide health care to the community that is respectful of and responsive to the needs of diverse patients. It helps the health care provider to understand the needs of patients while seeking treatment. It helps to patient-provider to meet on common ground in the diagnosis and treatment plan of the disease. Cultural competency has the potential to reduce inequities in access to health services and improve the health status of diverse cultural

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

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).

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”

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 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. Health care workers should be able to accept different cultural beliefs to create an understanding work environment. A healthcare workforce can achieve cultural competence by accepting new information and knowledge and having the ability to respect different perspectives. Engagement can be demonstrated through the intention to engage leading to the process of engagement and thus eliciting outcomes such as empathy, where participants in Soulé’s (2014) study understood flexibility, such as listening not hearing and being a learner and a professional, was needed for communication. The application is the combination of knowledge and skills that aid a workforce to include, respond to and negotiate. Soulé’s (2014) study found this component was less developed than the others. To develop this element of cultural

The Birch, Ruttan, Muth, & Baydala (2009) article though focused on cultural competence, highlights some relevant ideas such as “incorporating a reflective and learner-based approach in health care delivery” (p. 30), integrating “traditional practices or approaches when the client needs or wants them” (Dobbelsteyn, 2006, p. 34 as cited on p. 30), and acknowledging the diversity amongst Indigenous

I believe that cultural competence is an ongoing process that is developed over time. Individuals can obtain the knowledge and skills needed to be culturally sensitive through participating in workshops and trainings, creating family, individual, and community partnerships, and working with people from different ethnic back

A person’s ethnicity /culture influence his/her beliefs, behavior, emotions and these factors have marked implications on their health and health care activities. These factors are directly related to their decision-making in terms of health improvement lifestyles and seeking medical treatment when in need. A clinician’s understanding regarding multicultural influences, facilitate the response to the