The Importance Of Cultural Competency Interventions

Cultural competency aids in closing the “disparities gap” in health care. ("OMH," 2012, para. 2) In doing so, health professionals and their clients are better able to discuss concerns without cultural differences getting in the way of effective communication and problem solving. Being respectful of and sensitive to the client’s health beliefs, culture, values, and diverse needs can bring positive outcomes within treatment and patient care. After all, is it not the main job of the health care provider to ensure patient trust? Open forms of communication when dealing with client issues can only be provided if the patient is comfortable with his provider and believes his

The field of cross-cultural care mainly focuses on the ability to communicate in an effective way so that proper health care is provided to patients with from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Unfortunately, there is no empirical literature comparing the effectiveness of different models of cross-cultural care and communication. However, there is a strong empirical evidence which shows that educating health care clinicians in cross-culture care can significantly improve skills, knowledge and attitude. (9, 10)

It is important for policy makers to create services that are culturally sensitive since the United States is a culturally diverse country; moreover, Healthcare professionals needs to be culturally competent so that they can guide policy makers in making sustainable systems for individual communities. “Efforts to improve cultural competence among health care professionals and organizations would contribute to improving the quality of health care for all consumers” (GeorgeTown Health Policy Institutes, 2004, para 31). Language barrier is another culture issue that prevents the community from getting the care that they deserve. “Cultural and language differences and socioeconomic status interact with and contribute to low health literacy, defined as the inability to understand or act on medical/therapeutic instructions” (Shaw, Huebner, Armin, Orzech, & Vivian, 2009, p.1). There should be health policy addressing this issue because of the confusion and inappropriate treatment that many

I have learned that it is important that educators  and health providers be trained on cultural competency to understand the population they are serving. Marks, Sims, and Osher (King, Sims, & Osher, n.d.) define cultural competency  as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations" ( as cited in Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991). Health providers and educators should investigate demographic patterns or trends in the place where they live and work. This brings awareness of the types of cultures that they might come across when they are working with people. Organizations should integrate and implement policies that promote the value of  diversity, self-assessment, manage the dynamics of difference, acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of communities they serve (Georgetown  University, 2004). Georgetown University (2004) also stresses that culture competency grows gradually and is always open for improvement.

Adapting to different cultural beliefs and practices requires flexibility and a respect for others view points. Cultural competence means to really listen to the patient, to find out and learn about the patient's beliefs of health and illness. To provide culturally appropriate care we need to know and to understand culturally influenced health behaviors. However, becoming culturally competent is a much more daunting task. Culture (and ethnicity) often influences a patient’s perceptions of health and illness. Therefore, if healthcare providers appear insensitive to cultural diversity, their actions may negatively affect the quality of the healthcare that they provide.

Cultural competency is the capacity of people or services to include ethnic/cultural considerations into all aspects of their work related to health promotion, disease prevention and other and other healthcare interventions (Cultural competence is important for several reasons, (Purnell, 2008a).First, it can contribute in the development of culturally sensitive practices which can reduce barriers that effect treatment in healthcare settings. Second, it can promote understanding, which is detrimental in cultural competence assessment, to know whom, the individuals known as the primary care provider and whom they view as the primary healer, can attribute to the promotion of trust and increase the person’s interest in participating

“The new mestiza copes by developing a tolerance for contradictions, a tolerance for ambiguity. She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view. She learns to juggle cultures. She has a plural personality, she operates in a pluralistic mode—nothing is thrust out, the good, the bad, and the ugly, nothing rejected, nothing abandoned. Not only does she sustain contradictions, she returns the ambivalence into something else”

Patient centeredness, cultural competence and healthcare quality. Journal of the National Medical Association, 100(11), 1275-1285.

Unfortunately, the world we live is a far cry from perfect. We have all types of barriers and roadblocks that we must face and attempt to overcome on a daily basis. When dealing with healthcare, these barriers and roadblocks can be much scarier – and in some cases even deadly. These barriers are not limited to only language, but also to differences in cultures as well.

Interest in the subject of cultural and linguistic competency is beginning to reach the “tipping point” (Gladwell, 2002). Over the past two decades, there has been an “explosion” of interest in developing programs that meet the general, mental and oral health, as well as social service needs of the country’s increasingly diverse population. Cultural and linguistic competence initiatives are underway at the systems, organizational, and clinical levels in a variety of institutions. A growing number of federal agencies, foundations, and private organizations are supporting innovative educational, research, and service delivery services. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), for example, has Centers for Excellence (COEs) that use a curriculum guide for integrating cultural and linguistic competency content, methods and evaluation into existing academic programs (HRSA, 2005).

When clinically assessing patients in care settings, it is paramount for health professionals to elicit pertinent information that could be crucial for delivery of care. This is particularly important in the United States because the increasing diversity in racial and ethnic composition of the population has presented cultural challenges that care givers must navigate to provide culturally competent service. Cultural competence during delivery of care requires sensitivity to the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of patients (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, 2002). As a consequence, care providers need cultural assessment tools that will enable them

To help frame this evaluation program, the National Center for Cultural Competence provided a checklist to help guide this effort. They suggested that a cultural competence committee be formed to serve as a governing body to implement and evaluate cultural competence initiatives. Also it is important to " ensure that the program's or organization's mission statement commits to cultural competence as an integral component of all of its activities. The mission statement should articulate principles, rationale and values for culturally and linguistically competent health care service delivery. The cultural competence work group should be involved in or facilitate the development of this statement." Once responsibility is assigned and a mission statement is fully developed, this objective can be met and monitoring will be facilitated much more effectively and efficiently.

A cultural broker may serve as a guide in health care settings that are in the process of incorporating culturally and linguistically competent

A lack in cultural competency: Cultural incompetency is a broad concept of cultural and/or linguistic barriers between healthcare providers, patients, and supporting staff members (Truong, M, 2014). In the case of AHC, there are linguistic barriers present. This issue has been addressed by the medical staff but resulted as a failed effort. Discussions with staff members revealed that the facility did see an influx of patients when hiring more culturally diverse health care personnel, but the staff felt the need to resign before termination caused by the inability of following orders they did not understand (Jacobs, E, et al, 2006)

* A more culturally diverse patient population is requiring providers to establish cultural competency by having improved knowledge of different cultural perspectives