Cultural Awareness | eportfoliodianavides

Cultural Awareness and Competencies

Diana Vides

Culture Awareness

I took the cultural competence self-test: Promoting cultural and linguistic competency. I was not surprised by my results. I believe I am a very culturally competent person, this might be due to the fact that I am a minority and I come from a different cultural background than most of my peers. I have grown up learning two different cultures and I have been taught to always be culturally aware of other people’s feelings and beliefs. I did answer about 5 questions with the letter B, I believe this mean I still have some learning to be done when it comes to other cultures, disabilities, and environments. I believe as an individual you can always learn more about other people’s culture. When I meet someone from a different culture I always try to find out things about their culture. Learning about how other people see certain situations is always interesting to me. It gives me a different perceptive on how to handle situations. I try to keep myself educated when it comes to different cultures. However, I still need to learn more about what other people in different cultures find offensive and what they view important.

Cultural awareness is a very important skill to have. This allows people to be aware of what other people from different cultures, origins, and backgrounds believe. Being culturally competent helps reduce disparities and allows patients to receive high quality of care. As a health care leader being culturally aware and competent is a must. People from different races, backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and beliefs come to a medical organization to seek care. If their physicians or medical care leaders do not understand how to communicate with them, then they might not receive the proper care. There is a challenge in the healthcare world to promote cultural competency. Organizations like NIH and HRSA have provided different modules and research to reduce health disparities (Cultural Competency). The non-English population has grown by 140% while the overall population has grown by 34%. This means that people from all over the workforce must adapt to these changes and become more knowledgeable towards this changing world. Steps that can be taken are learning another language, religion, culture, and becoming more aware of your environment (Culture, Language and Health Literacy).

There are times when health disparities lead to the ordering of extra exams that are not needed for a patient. This occurs because the provider does not understand the patient. This then increases healthcare costs, which could have been avoided by being culturally competent. Providers order more diagnostic test to compensate for not understanding what they patients are saying. Patients may also not listen to the physician’s medical advice because they do not understand what the physician is saying. The message is not being communicated properly because of a language barrier. If these providers were to have trained interpreters then this could be avoided. According to the provider’s guide, culture isn’t the only thing to keep in mind when it comes to cultural awareness, one must also be aware of difference environment, economics, genetics, and health status. Cross cultural training for providers can help minimize health disparities and increase the quality of care for diverse individuals (Health Disparities).

Organizations like the National Center for Cultural Competence has developed online resources to help providers, students, and simply anyone who wants to become more knowledgeable in cultural awareness. They provide users with instructional and self-discovery strategies. Some examples of these curriculums are African American faith based bereavement initiative, Infusing cultural and Linguistic competence in to health promotion, and several many other topics. Other projects that have come to place from funding from the US department of HHS, the Substance Abuse and MHSA, NCCC, and many others are the Children and Youth with special health care needs, SIDS division, Division of MCH workforce development, and child and adolescent mental health. These projects are aimed at reducing health disparities and with their implementation health disparities are starting to decline (Conceptual Frameworks).

As a future healthcare leader I plan to take advantage of these resources. I also plan to make sure my staff is culturally aware of others beliefs, environment, economics, and origins. We watched a video in class the other day of this man being interviewed in a very diverse workplace, his body language and facial expressions towards the people of different backgrounds was disturbing. When I become a leader I do not want to see this in my department or organization. I will aim at promoting diversity, cultural awareness, and help break the gap between health disparities. I understand that people are brought up in different cultures and environments and will therefore understand that it might take others time to learn how to become knowledge when it comes to different cultures, backgrounds, and disabilities. I will therefore aim at creating a seminar for new employees and try to educate them on the importantance of cultural awareness in the workforce especially in the healthcare workforce.

Work Cited Page

"Conceptual Frameworks / Models, Guiding Values and Principles." Conceptual Frameworks / Models, Guiding Values and Principles. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://nccc.georgetown.edu/foundations/frameworks.html>.

"Culture, Language and Health Literacy." Culture, Language and Health Literacy. HRSA, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://www.hrsa.gov/culturalcompetence/index.html>.

"Cultural Competency - Clear Communication - National Institutes of Health (NIH)." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/culturalcompetency.htm>.

"Health Disparities." Health Disparities. MSH's Electronic Resource Center, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://erc.msh.org/mainpage.cfm?file=7.0.htm&module=provider&language=English&ggroup=&mgroup=>.