Importance Of Cross-Cultural Communication

It was interesting to read about the cross-cultural communication and its impact on the healthcare outcomes and well-being for the clients. The author provided a good synopsis of the critical elements to improve cross-cultural communication.

As Leavitt 2010 highlighted that it is our professional responsibility to make adaptive changes to technical challenges to better serve our clients. Furthermore, Leavitt (2010) emphasized not only on verbal and non-verbal communication skill but also on the linguistic structure which is vital for effective communication in the healthcare industry. Leavitt (2010) described that the meaning of “silence “is different in some cultures. For example, when working with a Chinese speaking client post hip replacement,

Without understanding the meaning of the client behavior, the therapists might also find certain behaviors exhibited by the client as irrelevant. For instance, some cultures expect the footwears are removed outside the front door before entering the house. If a home health therapist is providing services to the client at home, he or she may find it weird to remove footwear outside the house. Although for the patient removing footwear outside the house is a tradition to sanctify the house from the outside world. The lack of understanding to certain behaviors can results in mistrust and inhibit the rapport building

The understanding of individualistic vs. collectivist orientation and different generational groups (traditionalist, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials) are critical elements that the students should be aware of to help them develop effective communication strategies. Moreover, the patient-centered communication model such as LEARN (Listen, Elicit, Assess, Recommend and Negotiate by Berkins and Fowkes, 1993) is a simple yet effective model that can be easily incorporated in patient-client/student interaction to enhance communication skills with clients from diverse