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Cultural Competency And Awareness, Organization, And Skills

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It is important to first define cultural competency, as the ability for health professionals to work in situations where their personal culture may not be identical to that of the patient they are interacting with (Blackburn, 2015). Unfortunately, there is no definitive definition utilized across professions (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2011). This can make it difficult to pursue in both teaching it and evaluating it. In fact, this study will only touch on one method of evaluating cultural competence with three subscores: awareness, organization, and skills (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2011). This is not the only way to interpret and evaluate the particular realm of competence however, as there was yet another method of evaluation using five subsets: awareness/sensitivity, behaviors, patient-centered communication, practice orientation, and self-assessment (Schwarze, Witte, Sellers, Luzadis, Weiner, Domingo-Snyder, & Page Jr., 2015). This poses a solution to the lack of cultural competency and awareness; however the discord between methods of evaluation can also pose a problem with consistency. Cultural competency is a growing need in the United States as well as an important ethical aspect of health care. Given its importance, it is crucial to understand if it is being utilized and taught effectively. In order to establish if something is being understood, there must be a test capable of evaluating the cultural competency of individuals. This test is called the Cultural

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