Explain the importance of culturally appropriate health policies. As public health professionals, it is our responsibility to define a vision for the future of individual’s health, to help make the world healthier by being a critical thinker and developing an understanding of public health policies and programs at regional, national and local levels. Health Policy is intended to be a vehicle for the exploration and discussion of health policy and health system issues and is aimed in particular at enhancing communication between health policy and system researchers, legislators, decision-makers and professionals concerned with developing, implementing, and analyzing health policy, health systems and health care reforms, primarily in high-income countries outside the U.S.A(Busse, 2016). The increasing of diversity in the United States become overwhelming especially to minority groups in particular. As healthcare providers and healthcare systems, it is very important to respect the values, behaviors, cultural, religion, and health of each individual. This is challenging, however, failure to do so, could lead to major consequences in health outcomes for the future. This is why health care systems and policy maker need to deliver culturally competent services that will …show more content…
However, once you have your plan in place, the right people to support your plan, it can be a rewarding and successful experience. When developing a policy, choosing stakeholders are very important. With the right stakeholders are chosen, there is better lines of communication and contribution goes directly to policy and program development. More importantly, the right stakeholders, increase accountability, improve access to decision making and encourages integrated and comprehensive solution to complex policy issues. Lastly, by involving some type of incentive it will get the attention of the community
The absence of cultural competency in some health care providers, lack of community perspective integration in health care facilities, and low quality health care received by women in developing countries.These are the three most pressing health care concerns that need to be addressed in our ever changing world. The first of the issues I’ll be discussing is the lack of cultural competency amongst health care providers, as well as the shortage of education and training in cultural competency. As we all know and see the United States is a racially and ethnically diverse nation which means our health care providers need to be equipped with the necessary education and training to be able to provide for diverse populations. As an East African
In conclusion, It it is very necessary that our health care officials try harder to gain trust with minorities so that medicine can be focused more on equality. We all know that for decades our country was very diverse and everyone was treated differently. Although things have changed and it is sometimes important to preserve our past, past actions should not still be carried out. Even today, racism still occurs and it hard for minorities to feel safe when visiting hospitals and doctor’s offices. Minorities should be given equal medical opportunities, be given the honest truth on their diagnosis and treatments and most importantly be given some sort of health care so they can be treated.
Health care establishments have an obligation to ensure that every individual obtaining care from them will get the best and most valuable treatment regardless of their race, culture, or economic status. The term diversity can be defined as “the quality or state of having different forms, types, ideas, etc, or the state of having people of different races or different cultures in a group or organization”, according to the Webster’s dictionary (2015). The changing demographics due to migration have led to diversity in many cities and states in the U.S. as well as other countries in the world. These changes in the U.S. have today led to the government encouraging health care organizations to explore ways numerous ways
The United States’ population is currently rising exponentially and with growth comes demographic shifts. Some of the demographics shifts include the population growth of Hispanics, increase in senior citizens especially minority elderly, increase in number of residents who do not speak English, increase in foreign-born residents, population trends of people from different sexual orientation, and trends of people with disabilities (Perez & Luquis, 2009). As a public health practitioner, the only way to effectively eliminate health disparities among Americans, one must explore and embrace the demographic shifts of the United States population because differences exist among ethnic groups (Perez, 2009). We must be cognizant of the adverse health conditions for each population and the types of socioeconomic factors that affect them. Culture helps shape an individual’s health related beliefs, values, and behaviors. It is more than ethnicity and race; culture involves economic, political, religious, psychological, and biological aspects (Kleinman & Benson, 2006). All of these conditions take on an emotional tone and moral meaning for participants (Kleinman & Benson, 2006). As a health professional, it is one’s duty to have adequate knowledge and awareness of various cultures to effectively promote health behavior change. Cultural and linguistic competencies through cultural humility are two important aspects of working in the field of public health. Cultural competency is having a sense of understanding and respect for different cultural groups, while linguistic competency is the complete awareness of the language barriers that impact the health of individuals. These concepts are used to then work effectively work with various pop...
2.3 Explain how the health and social care practitioner own values, beliefs and experiences can influence delivery of care.
Health disparity is one of the major concerns in the provision of quality care and access to healthcare which directly the life expectancy of the nation as about ethnicity and race. However, describing the health outcomes or status of an ethnic group in the population would help in a better evaluation of the disparities that occur within minority groups in our society. “Racial/ethnic disparities in health and quality of and access to health care are a well-documented and persistent problem. Across many indicators of health, access to care, and health care quality, racial/ethnic minorities fare worse than whites, and each population faces specific challenges”(James et al., 2017, p. 1).
According to Penner et al. (2013), there are various causes of healthcare disparities, such as socioeconomic status; this results to poor healthcare services for people with low socioeconomic status, as people with low pay find it difficult to leave their work to seek healthcare help, or to afford healthcare insurance (p.4). The second cause is language proficiency. The language barriers faced by the immigrant plays a role in the healthcare disparities among the racial or ethnic minority patients. Another cause is health literacy. The levels of the health literacy among the foreign born individuals can be influenced by their higher level of distrust of the healthcare providers and healthcare system than they have towards Caucasian people. This, in turn, leads them to seek healthcare information less often than their Caucasian counterparts, thus hindering the provision of quality services, as well as limiting the foreign patients’ ability to manage their health conditions effectively. The foreigners’ failure to easily accept the information provided to them by healthcare providers puts them at risk. Disentangling the role of health literacy in racial healthcare disparities from the effects of racial attitudes and beliefs is often hard (Penner et al,
There is a lack of conceptual clarity with cultural competence in the field and the research community. Cultural competence is seen as encompassing only racial and ethnic differences, and omitting other population groups who are ethnically and racially similar to providers, but are stigmatized or discriminated against, who are different in other identities, and have some differences in their health care needs that have resulted in health disparities. (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,
There has been a rapid growth in minorities in the U.S. particularly the Hispanic/ Latino community. Bureau of Health Professions (2013) studies have shown that with the rapid increase of this culture, Hispanics are not being adequately understood by medical professionals because of underrepresentation within the medical field. The after effects of underrepresentation have caused healthcare issues among this population. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2006) there has been a correlation between patient satisfaction and medical professionals of the same culture.
The office of minority health. (2013). U.S. department of health & human service. Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=11
Over the last several weeks we have learned that we live in a culturally diverse world. We have learned that it is important to acknowledge our own cultural values and beliefs while also realizing that others around us have their own beliefs. In order to provide culturally sensitive care, we must also realize the meaning of diversity and how it can also relate to the health care workforce. The purpose of this post is to define what diversity means to me. I will describe what some of the benefits of having a diverse health care workforce is while acknowledging that this could also provide some barriers in the nursing profession. I will conclude by considering my own diverse cultural background and experiences and how it might relate to the
An individual’s culture and belief may significantly impact the type of services they require. In addition, it may affect the time, place, and method in the delivery of health care
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Public health in the United States in the early 1900s focused on improving sanitation, controlling infectious diseases, assuring the safety of the food and water supply, and providing immunizations to children with a workforce composed mostly of physicians, nurses, and biological scientists (Brandt and Gardner, 2000; Garrett, 2000; Mullan, 2000). Today’s public health challenges are much broader. Healthy People 2010 lays out a broad agenda for public health efforts aimed at increasing health-related quality of life and eliminating health disparities (U.S. DHHS, 2000). Koplan and Fleming (2000) outline 10 challenges for public health that include cleaning up the environment, eliminating health disparities, wisely using new scientific knowledge and technology, attending to children’s physical and emotional development, and aging healthily. The solutions will require multi-faceted public health policies, with an ecological approach. This will require well-educated interdisciplinary group of public health professionals whose focus is population health. A specialized set of professionals who also understand that successful interventions require understanding not only of the effects of biology and behavior, but also the social, environmental, and economic contexts within which populations
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.