Cultural Competence In Healthcare Management And Cultural Diversity

Cultural competence in health care describes the ability to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors, including tailoring health care delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural and linguistic needs. The need for healthcare systems to increase cultural competence and personalize care for ethnic patient minorities should not be ignored. Healthcare systems should promote better understanding and communication between diverse ethnic patients and caregivers. Hospitals should design a system that caters to the needs of all the populations they serve and not just apply a one-size-fits-all approach. Becoming a culturally competent health care organization is a critical component in reducing health care disparities.

Culture has more than one definition. It can be defined as the language spoken throughout a group of people or even the beliefs practiced. In the professional field of nursing, nurses are required to do more than administer medication or change bandages on a patient. To be able to fulfill a nurse’s job requirements, a nurse must learn to be culturally competent. Cultural competency in the professional field of nursing means to care and respect the patient whether or not the health care provider is in agreement with the patient’s decisions.

Haynes (2016) article, The Road to Cultural Competency Are We There yet? Stated that the key to decreasing health disparities in the workforce could be done by increasing diversity. Health disparities as indicated by Turk (2014), Issue: Nursing Workforce, can result in a more complicated societal problem. It was further stated, health disparities have received much attention and is currently identified as a priority issue in our nation. According to Haynes (2016), strategies which were recommended by the Sullivan Commission were done to increase the workforces of nursing should begin with education. Cultural competency as stated here should be a vital component of the nursing curriculum. Turk (2014) reported health disparities result in a more multifaceted societal burden. According to Turk (2014), decreasing health disparities has received significant attention. Individuals, including policymakers, academicians, and researchers are concerned about the diversification of the healthcare workforce of which strategies are being implemented by decreasing health disparities and increasing the availability of culturally competent among health care providers.

Miscommunication, medication errors, and lack of compliance commonly occur in the healthcare field. These are just a few of the errors that occur due to the patient being from a different culture than the physician or healthcare worker. Those three errors alone have a huge impact on our healthcare today. If we could have a better understanding of other cultures that are different from our own we could have a dramatic decrease in errors and a great increase in healthcare participation. Training must be completed and must be done in more than one way. The first step is to make sure that all physicians and health care workers get the same nationwide training that focuses on improving cultural competence. How this is completed must be done in more than one way (Horwitz, 2001).

Cultural Competency can be described as one’s ability to learn about cultures other than their own. It speaks to the value one places on diversity and their desire to foster an open exchange of ideas between dissimilar cultures. While in a perfect world, cultural competency would be of heightened importance in all aspects of life, there are certain industries where cultural competency factor more heavily; one of those being health care. This is especially true in areas with increased diversities of cultures, ethnic groups and a variety of languages.

Cultural competence can be used as a strategy to improve quality healthcare and help in getting over racial and ethnic disparities. It is only one solution to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in the healthcare systems. With that said many health care facilities are taking part in cultural competence. Although in this topic we are dealing with healthcare, cultural competence can be utilized within most businesses such as retail, the military and other government related jobs (Harris, 2011) as well as the food industry. With that said, Cultural competence has become a popular strategy within the healthcare world. Before I begin to explain how I would incorporate Cultural Competence into my work environment, I feel as though I must first explain what Cultural Competence is.

The United States Census Bureau has predicted that the minorities will become the majority by 2042. Unfortunately, the minorities collectively live below poverty level and are uninsured for healthcare, even though there have been many attempts to improve as mentioned in the above post. Some studies have also proved that the minorities have a tendency to live a shorter life, which in turn means that they have a higher percentage of loss of life, and have little knowledge about health care and available resources.

Cultural Competency, widely known as the ability to understand the differences between cultures and how one can assess and effectively respond to each patient’s cultural diversity. Cultural competency is something that can be applied far and wide to many different professions, but its importance is strongly present in the healthcare industry.

Cultural and linguistic competence is an essential component in the work towards addressing and eliminating health disparities because it will allow everyone to truly understand exactly what the problem is and have common goals. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, definition of linguistic competence is “the capacity of an organization and its personnel to convey information in a manner that is easily understood”. This means that everyone is on an equal level if they are illiterate, speak a different language, have a disability, etc. Treatment is half of healthcare, but the interactions between doctors and patients is the other half, and arguably more impotent. Patients will be less likely to follow the instructions their physician gives them if they do not feel respected. It is a fact that black and Latinos

Culture defined as “ an integrated pattern of human behaviour that include the language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, or social groups.”1 Competence refers to “the capacity to function effectively as an individual and an organization within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviours, and needs presented by consumers and their communities.”2

The purpose of this paper is to share research information of health care organizations who are experiencing issues with Cultural Diversity. The information shared will help to support health care systems as they continuously work towards reducing health care disparities. While they continue their efforts to decrease diversity in health care governance and leadership. According to recent studies, the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, found that there is about 81 percent of hospitals educated. Studies also found that all

They stated that there was a social justice element to their workplace with values encompassed by their organisation, values such as “respecting and embracing diversity” (2017, 23, 342–347). Joseph R. Betancourt states that the health-care workforce need a practical set of tools and skills. (Betancourt, 2014 Addressing Disparities and Achieving Equity p. 144) The ‘’tools’’ being a cultural competent health care system with relevant policies and the ‘’skills’’ meaning the ability to undergo the lifelong learning of cultural understanding. That will enable health professionals to provide quality’’ care in a country with diverse populations such as Australia. Healthcare workers must abide by cultural polices and strategies that the health care system put into place and they also must continue to improve their knowledge on culture, in order for Australian health care to be actually culturally competent and not just appear so. Without policies and strategies put in place health care workers do not have a system that allows them to provide culturally adequate care and if the health care workers do not consistently adjust the perspective and understanding on culture or do not follow cultural regulations and prevention strategies, put in place then the health care system is not culturally competent. A cultural competent health care system is interdependent relying on both the structure, the policies and the strategies implemented by the healthcare system’s organizers and the skills and cultural understanding of the health care

Encountering a fast growing aging nation, the U.S. government strives to create the cultural competence of medical care providers for this to lower health inequalities. The overall rising number of the older adult population exemplifies a cultural icon within itself. The proportion of older adults from ethnic and racial minority groups is projected to increase exponentially by 2050, with the largest growth rates being among Hispanics, followed by Asian-Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and African Americans. During the year of 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau stated that 19 percent of the U.S. population that is aged 65 years and older would be considered as a minority. In 2050, 39 percent of the countries older adults will be denoted by minority groups. For these predictions, organizations should incorporate community outreach. This will help in studying the population and learning who are the most efficient resource individuals within the ethnic groups. Also, they can predict the need and demand for alliances or affiliations so that when families get there, the health care organizations can be more organized and be prepared to give pertinent services and resources. Organizations can reach out to religious groups to help engage workers, trainers, or religious leaders who has a better understanding of the individual’s cultural back and they can also help in educating employees in the distinctions of working with them to display respect (Lehman, D., Fenza, P., &

As the United States becomes a more racially and ethnically diverse nation, opportunities and challenges for health care providers to generate and use culturally competent services is growing rapidly. At our hospital our providers need to respond to patients’ varied perspectives, values, and behaviors about health and well-being. We must effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and language needs of our patients. When we fail to understand and manage our social and cultural differences it has significant health consequences for minority groups.

For health care workers, cultural competency is important for obvious reasons. On a daily basis, healthcare professionals work with patients of a variety of cultures, and many work with team members who come from different cultures than their own. Medical and other healthcare professionals spend many years in school learning how and when to treat patients for giving symptoms, but teaching them to interact with patients currently falls on knowing the things that make up a person’s cultural identity. Cultural differences that exist between people, such as language, dress and traditions, and the way societies organize themselves, their conception of morality and religion, attitudes about illness and death and the way they interact with the environment. Cultural competence is important in health care because the patient outcome, patient readmissions, staff retention, and labor relations all determine the outcome of an organizations success. Diversity improves the effectiveness and productivity of the workforce. Disadvantages of ignoring cultural diversity can result in a loss of revenue for the business. Company growth will also be affected by ignoring cultural diversity. Steps an organization should take to face this challenge is to implement training that cover workforce diversities and keep an open dialogue among employees expressing concerns, differences, ideas, etc.