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Examples of cultural competence in healthcare
Cultural consideration in health care
Reflective essay on cultural competence in healthcare
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Going to a different country or area of the world can open up anybody’s eyes to see that culture makes a huge impact on the understanding and practices of healthcare that seem to be so common to other areas of the world. When a person lives in one country their whole life, that person may not realize how different the life they live is from someone in a foreign country. If a person is going to receive treatment from someone with a different cultural background, they should be expected to get treatment to respects their own culture. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences having such a diverse variety of students has their own cultural competency definition that states “effectively and comfortably communicate across cultures with patients of differing backgrounds, taking into account aspects of trust in order to adopt mutually acceptable objectives and measures”. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler, the issue of culture and healthcare are greatly prevalent. Katherine Dettwyler herself goes to West Africa as an anthropologist and her horizons are broadened when during her research she comes in contact with how much culture has an impact on healthcare and everyday life. Some cultural differences may not seem as if they could act as a barrier but within countries language can make or break a relationship. In Mali where all of Katherine Dettwyler’s research takes place language is quite an important thing to them. The people of Mali instantly believe that any toubabou, white person, only knows how to speak in English which quickly surprised them when discovering the Dettwyler in fact can speak Bambara, their native language. Being able to speak their language made it easier ... ... middle of paper ... ... becoming malnourished. Medically related subjects are effected by cultural in all areas on the world for the wide cultural diversity. Being narrow-minded and not being able to take a look at a situation from another person’s point of view can interfere with many situations in life. Culture varies from person to person, province to province, and country to country. Making the adjustment to be able to make adjustments to things such as healthcare to accommodate someone because of their culture is important. Cultural differences will be apparent in all hospital settings no matter where you travel to, so being mindful of it all will go a long way so that the treatment is done correctly and culturally competently. While healthcare may seem as the most important time where culture is sensitive, as Dettwyler sees during her time in Mali, culture affects all parts of life.
Jean Giddens (2013) defines culture as “a pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language, or live in a defined geographical region.” (Giddens, 2013). A person’s culture influences every aspect that person’s life. Beliefs affected by culture include how someone interacts within the family, how to raise children, the types of foods eaten, the style of clothes chosen, which religion is practiced, and the style of communication (including verbal, and body language, slang used etc.) (Giddens, 2013). In addition to these beliefs, health care practices are also affected by culture. The cause
Douglas, Rosenkoetter, Pacquiao, Callister, Hattar-Pollara, Lauderdale, Milstead, Nardi, & Purnell (2014) outline ten guidelines for implementing culturally competent care; knowledge of cultures, education and training in culturally competent care, critical reflection, cross-cultural communication, culturally competent practice, cultural competence in health care systems and organizations, patient advocacy and empowerment, multicultural workforce, cross-cultural leadership, and evidence-based practice and research. One specific suggestion I will incorporate is to engage in critical reflection. This is mentioned both by Douglas, et al. (2014) and Trentham, et al. (2007) as an important part of cultural competency. I will do this by looking at my own culture, beliefs, and values and examining how they affect my actions. I will use this information to better inform my day to day practice when working with patients with a different culture than my
These differences in origin accounts for diversity in socio-cultural backgrounds and nurses must develop the knowledge and the skills to engage patients from different cultures and to understand the beliefs and the values of those cultures (Jarvis, 2012). If healthcare professionals focus only on a narrowly defined biomedical approach to the treatment of disease, they will often misunderstand their patients, miss valuable diagnostic cues, and experience higher rates of patient noncompliance with therapies. Thus, it is important for a nurse to know what sociocultural background a patient is coming from in order to deliver safe an effective
Cobb, Torry Grantham, DHSc, MPH,M.H.S., P.A.-C. (2010). STRATEGIES FOR PROVIDING CULTURAL COMPETENT HEALTH CARE FOR HMONG AMERICANS. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 17(3), 79-83. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp-01.lirn.net/docview/750318474?accountid=158556
Throughout the Think Culturally assignment, I realized the impact I will have as a healthcare provider. The scenarios that were provided throughout each course assignment gave me insight on the negative health outcomes that can occur when cultural competence is not present. In order to have cultural competence, I must acknowledge that some patient’s health beliefs will be different from my own. This can be distinguished by having open communication and asking pertinent questions. Treating patients that are not proficient in English, can become overwhelming. As a future nurse practitioner, I want to utilize all the necessary recourses to ensure my patient’s fully understand the plan of care and treatment regimen.
Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person recognizes as a health care professional and whom they views as traditional healer, can aid the development of trust and improve the individual’s investment and participation in treatment. Third, our population in the United States is not only growing quickly but also changing, cultural competence will allow us as educators and healthcare workers keep up wi...
With that said, the cultural environment in which one live is what shape every individual uniquely (Rew, 2014). Components of the cultural environment that impact our views and behaviors are: ideas, beliefs, values, religious costumes, and traditions. Ultimately, culturally congruent care is only possible when patient care successfully incorporate cultural values, expressions, and patterns that benefit patient needs (Alligood, 2014; Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2015). Since nurses are patient advocates, it is essential that they develop awareness and are able to recognize unique needs that are specific to individual patients (Rew, 2015). Nonetheless, nurses need to understand that there are differences and similarities between cultures that are often not obvious to outsiders. In light of this, nurses must be willing to compromise to meet patient needs in a nonjudgmental
That is why I believe we should all practice cultural sensitivity as the one article provided says. “One useful way to think about practicing cultural sensitivity in the borderlands of our multicultural communities is to consider the dialectics of these intercultural interactions” (Martin & Nakayama, 1999). “A dialectic perspective is crucial for understanding community in that everyone who joins a group wishes to be both a part of the group and apart from it” (Adelman & Frey, 1997). This Communicating Health article is very helpful when understanding how much culture influences our health systems and how much communication is important within all this. In my first article that found offers an understanding of how increasing diversity in health care is about the future which is now. This article is called Improving Quality, Achieving Equity, and Increasing Diversity in Healthcare: The Future is Now by Joseph R. Betancourt, Sarah Beiter, and Alden Landry. I found a statement in this article that mentions how stereotyping influences a lot of decisions and outcomes. “Many nonmedical factors, ranging from the patient’s physical appearance to the organizational setting in which medical care is delivered, may have as much influence on clinical decisions as the actual signs and symptoms of disease” (Hooper, Comstock, Goodwin, & Goodwin, 1982;
For example, the Campinha-Bacote model views cultural competence as an ongoing process that involves the integration of the following constructs: cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounters, and cultural desires (Campinha-Bacote, 2002). This model can be implemented into practice as I can recognize my own cultural background to prevent the tendency to impose any biases on another individual’s culture. I can begin to build upon my cultural knowledge by asking questions in a respectful manner to seek information about one’s culture. Most importantly, a desire to want to engage in the process of becoming culturally competent will be a deciding factor for positive patient outcomes. Examples of this desire may include, the willingness to learn how to conduct cultural assessments or a genuine passion to be open and accept differences between cultures. Moreover, it is important to recognize that cultural competency is not an end result, but an ongoing learning process (Campinha-Bacote,
Bentancourt et al. (2005) allows asserts that there are three distinctive reasons why cultural competency is so very important for the American healthcare system. American is composed of a very diverse population, which mean healthcare providers will continual be exposed to treating individuals from various backgrounds and from various cultures; their beliefs regarding their health or healthcare may range widely. When patients have a deficiency in the English language, proper healthcare delivery becomes increasingly more difficult as they will present symptoms in the syntax of their culture and their first language. Also, research shows the communication between the patient and their provider directly correlates to their satisfaction as well as their responsiveness or willingness to follow the health provider medical instructions; this ultimately affects the patient’s health outcome (Bentancourt et al., 2005). It’s fair to say that a successful health outcome is also contingent upon the interaction of the health provider and patient. Reports generated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) – “Crossing the Quality Chasm and Unequal Treatment, confirms that cultural competence that focuses on the care of patient through
As nurses entering the medical field understanding the culture of our patients is crucial to proper care. Each culture has their own set of beliefs and values that are shared among groups of people which influences personality, language, lifestyles, house hold, level modesty, social standings, foods, health treatment and identity. Culture affects how people view health and illness; dictating when, where and what type of medical treatment they will receive and who will be their care provider.
Culture tremendously impacts people’s lives both positively and negatively. Since culture is primarily a way of doing things that guides how a particular set of people who have common interests or have a common background, even medicine has a culture that is constantly changing with time. Medicine culture is affected by emerging technology, research and new illnesses just to mention a few (Pacey, 2014). Health is also considered as a cultural concept since it frames and shapes how we see the world and our encounters.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management diversity is: “A broad definition of diversity ranges from personality and work style to all of the visible dimensions of diversity such as race, age, ethnicity or gender, to secondary influences such as religion, socioeconomics and education, to work diversities such as management and union, functional level and classification or proximity/distance to headquarters.” Diversity is a huge factor that we are striving for in many occupations around the world, but healthcare is one of the main professions that is becoming more diverse. Not only does it have many positive effects, it is providing the patients and workers with a sense of respect for each other. The patients are able to have a nurse or occupational therapists that understand where they are coming from. They might have the same morals or they might be in a similar situation as the patient, so they will be able to relate with the patient and understand them during difficult times. More companies are relating diversity into the workforce. Therefore they are able to have a more successful business because of the many changes they are making to meet the needs of each individual.
Kodjo, C. (2009, February,2009). Cultural competence in clinician communication [Pediatr Rev]. Pub Med Central, 30(2), 57-64. doi:10.1542/pir.30-2-57
There is no end-point to searching out knowledge of other cultures and demonstrating understanding. It is through life experience that one learn of cultures. Caring, empathy, understanding, treating others as you would want to be treated are attributes of my personal philosophy regarding cultural competence. Though out my nursing career, I have come to realize that the profession of nursing is constantly changing and redefining. Defining practice through theory has validated nursing as a profession. Defining the skills needed for cultural competencies is rooted in caring, and core to the nurse-patient relationship. If a nurse cannot display caring or empathy, cultural competence cannot be attained. As our world becomes smaller and our society becomes more ethnically diverse cultural competence will be a necessary skill for health care professional. For nurses, caring, person-centered care, cultural competence, and quality is what defines practice for the 21st century nurse (Leininger,