At Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) at All Saints, we celebrated diversity week in June of this year. The Café featured a meal from a different culture each day. Then, in the main atrium, a culture map was hung with push pins available to mark the country of a person’s heritage. Later, an employee could choose to complete a puzzle related to diversity in health care. The completed puzzle could be turned in to Human Resources (HR), and the employee would be entered in a drawing for a prize. Another activity for the employees was Bingo. The card had quotes and trivia about diversity and were handed to employees to complete. Once the card was finished, the card was turned into HR. At that time, the employee was entered a drawing. Briefly, these activities demonstrate how BSWH at All Saints is actively educating the staff and others in the different cultures surrounding our hospital. In essence, the exercises focus on the positive aspects of the different cultural groups. This was a fun and enjoyment way of learning about the cultural and traditions of different groups of people. The atrium was filled with excitement and interaction with people. Incidentally, hospital administration was present during the festivities. …show more content…
The cultural destructiveness is at the lowest end or negative end of the cultural competence continuum. Whereas cultural proficiency is at the top end or positive end of the cultural competence continuum (Rose, 2013). The diversity week at BSWH focused attention to each culture and is moving towards achieving the cultural proficiency. According to Castillo & Guo (2011), a culturally competent organization addresses the needs of diverse patients through its commitment with staff training that enhance cultural
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.
Having each employee participate in this activity will lead them to tolerate each other beliefs and lifestyle. In addition, it will hopefully lead them to build long-term friendships and making it more comfortable to work together. Furthermore, researching other’s cultural differences can help them come up with better solutions and building a stronger connection with patients outside their race. Also, it will help the employees strengthen their interpersonal skill in and outside of a workplace. In conclusion, the dental health professionals taking my plan into consideration for striving for diversity in the dental offices in Arkansas will improve dental care and could help alert other dentists outside of Arkansas to diversify their office too. Each dental office across the world should incorporate a cultural swap in their workplace so employees can learn about one another's
Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García differentiate cultural humility and cultural competence based upon the longevity involved in the pursuit of expertise in both concepts. They insinuate that cultural competence is based primarily on facts that generalize the behaviors of minorities and low-income populations receiving health care services. On the contrary, cultural humility places more importance on the provider’s personal awareness of their response to the individual needs of patients without constricting guidelines that overlook challenges involved in meeting their health concerns. Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García mentioned that there is not an adequate amount of medical training aimed towards exposure to diverse populations.
In this great nation we live in today that has been vastly increasing diversity bring so many great opportunities. But with these great opportunities there are also challenges that are continually looked over constantly. One of the challenges is our health care system that fails to deliver culturally competent services. Cultural competency helps to enable providers to deliver services that are respectful to diverse patients. This helps with patients own health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs. This is why this training is needed in every health facility. Many doctors go through this problem not understanding their patient’s needs. If I were a doctor I would use this skill. Certain racial and ethnic minorities receive poorer
As a health care professional, we are faced with caring for patients of different cultural and ethnic background. Researching and learning about the patient’s culture values, beliefs and practices is essential and remarks the ability to provide quality health care for the patient. “Organizations and individuals who understand their clients’ cultural values, beliefs, and practices are in a better position to be coparticipants with their clients in providing culturally acceptable care” (Purnell & Paulanka, 2008, p. 2). After completing the cultural competence checklist, I was able to identify some of my responses to the patient cultural values and belief practices. I will describe a summary of my assessment results, analyze
Culture includes the customs, traditions, ideas, and ways of interacting with the environment that often differ in various parts of the world. Over the last several decades in the U.S. there has been a growing awareness and tolerance of cultures other than the traditional western culture in the community. And in healthcare we are expected to provide all patients and families with the same respect and treatment, but at the same time provide individualized care. In order to meet these standards the work place environment has responded with training and education on cultural competence. The term cultural competence can be defined by the ability to respect and understand the beliefs and attitudes of
Cultural Competence Cultural competence has big impact on today’s society. Health care institutions need to be able to provide proper care to every patient. Cultural competence is about learning about different ethnic backgrounds. Everyone feels the need get social support in a health environment, especially here in the U.S.
As the United States population continues to follow the trend of increasing diversity, the need for more culturally competent healthcare professionals increases as well. According to some of the leading experts in health care policy, cultural competency in health care can be described as the ability of systems and/or healthcare professionals to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors, including tailoring delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs (Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R., & Carrillo, J.E., 2002). These researchers assert that there are essentially three specific barriers to cultural competency in the health care setting: lack of diversity in health care’s leadership and workforce, poorly designed systems of care that fall short of meeting the needs of diverse patient populations, and poor communication between providers
Respect, effective communication, empathy, and morality are the cornerstones of cultural competency. Healthcare professionals are advocates for patients and learning the beliefs, behaviors, and being sensitive to other’s way of life is critical in patient care. Obstacles for culturally competent care include xenophobia, prejudice, bigotry, stereotyping, as well as an aversion or misunderstanding of western medicine within the US healthcare system due to an unfamiliarity or a lack of knowledge of practices. It is imperative that one puts their own judgements and assumptions aside, a positive rapport is built, and effective communication is always achieved when caring for patients to ensure the best possible care is given. It is a healthcare
Cultural competence requires culture recognition, knowledge and understanding for each individual patients care. “Cultural competence in health care describes the ability of systems to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors, including tailoring delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs” (Betancourt, Green, and Carrillo, p. 5). The ability to deliver culturally
The National Center for Cultural Competence (2007) declares “assessing attitudes, practices, structures and policies of programs and their personnel is a necessary, effective and systematic way to plan for and incorporate cultural and linguistic competency within organizations.” A common practice is the use of screening and assessment instruments to deliver person-centered care to individuals in need of healthcare services. Culture becomes a focal point, philosophy and lens of healthcare service
It can be argued that the development of cultural competence does not occur in a short encounter with cultural diversity but that it takes time to develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to safely and satisfactorily deliver cultural care - a
This concept enables healthcare professionals to deliver services that are considerate and open-minded to health beliefs, practices and specific needs of diverse patients. (National Institute of Health, 2015) Cultural competency is an important concept in reducing
Cultural competence is focused on learned behaviors and actions and can be pertain and individual, organization or policy (Oelke, Thurston, & Arthur, 2013). Ideally, a healthcare providers’ practice would only be influenced by the individual patient and/or the community of which the patient resides. But in reality, the healthcare providers’ practice and care is influenced by many entities, such as the
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.