Cultural Differences: The Australian Aboriginal Culture

After reading Dr. Galanti 's articles about culturally competent healthcare please answer the following questions: What did you gain from reading Dr. Galanti 's article? 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

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 gaining knowledge of specific groups Campinha-Bacote (1998) and Purnell (1998) state the four stages nurses experience: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence. Being unaware that an individual is lacking in cultural knowledge is referred to as unconscious incompetence. Such healthcare professionals may read articles or attend classes about cultural diversity. They may hence know that culture plays a role in the delivery of care but do not know how to use this knowledge (Campinha-Bacote, 1998). While this student agrees with Narayanasamy (2002) that it is almost impossible to be an expert in all cultures, it is however expected that healthcare professionals make efforts to gain an insight into the cultural backgrounds of patients under their care. !

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.

Culture includes all of humanity in the construction and conveying aspects of social life. Since born, the socialisation process is a path of adoption of the behaviour patterns of the surrounding culture to the social groups and the community on what is a symbol and value systems (Kirmayer & Swartz, 2014). Culture respecting is an important to work with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, some considerations need to pay attention as follows,

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.

Introduction Aboriginal Australian peoples have been placed in unfair situations that have resulted in disconnections from society due to bias in culture, racism and because of previous historical events such as colonisation that led to colonialism and horrible events such as The Stolen Generation. These events act like a scar to the Aboriginal Australian peoples and their culture, those previously mentioned historical events symbolises the cut, the immense pain that was caused in that moment is still a factor and the pain from it is still prevalent and is symbolised by the scar. The scar also represents the factors that still manage to affect the Aboriginal Australians today, such as racism and lack of quality and access to education, money and health care.. The Indigenous peoples are also affected by various other factors such as limited access to health care that may be of poor quality, such resources may also bring fear to the Indigenous peoples because practitioners are not always sensitive or respectful to

These cultural expectations could affect relationships with clients and co-workers in the form of their families involvement, body language, gender preferences and so on. It is very important that health workers learn to be innovative and flexible when working with people from other cultural backgrounds. PROJECT 1

Culture affects how one views others and the world around them in a large way as shown by past experiences, heritage, and family. Family affects our culture because the people we spend our life with have such a large impact on the way we act. Moreover our past experiences affect us by learning from what we and others do and the result. Things one has experienced in the past greatly affects how one views the world. This is clearly shown in Robert Lake’s(Medicine Grizzlybear’s) essay, “An Indian Father’s Plea.”

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.,

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: 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.

Introduction Being culturally self-aware is important in everyday life and in work. Cultural self-awareness refers to having the ability to step back and reflect the values that are specific to our own culture but also the culture of those we work with and with those who help as mental health professionals. For example, my belief system might be different from my co-worker or from a client. A second thing that we as professionals need to remember is that cultural diversity has it place in our line of work. Cultural diversity deals with nationality, race, color, gender, creed, religion and age (Merchant, n.d.).

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.