Cultural Competency

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What daily demonstrations lend themselves to the development of stronger relationships with regards to being culturally competent?
A significant role of healthcare professionals is the development of strong relationships with regards to being culturally competent. According to K. Davis, “cultural competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase quality of services…” ((Dreachslin, Gilbert & Malone, 2013, p. 109). Cultural competence in healthcare has been a continuous goal that follows four main steps: cultural awareness (recognition of the strong effects of culture on self and others), …show more content…

College is the best time to interact with people, especially peers, who have different backgrounds and beliefs as myself. A great way to become cultural aware is to submerge oneself in situations that are unfamiliar, so that one can learn from experience rather than in a classroom setting. One of the biggest ways that I can translate these concepts into my daily practice is through my service-learning project, which involves working with individuals with physical and/or mental handicaps. This project gives me experience with working with vulnerable populations and encourages me to look at situations through a new perspective. The setting of my service-learning is the closest replica, except for the time spent at facilities for my observation hours, to that of my future career, so it allows me to utilize the skills that I learn in the classroom in everyday practice. Another way that I can integrate those concepts into my daily life is getting involved in as many different organizations that I can and form bonds with different groups of people who have both similar and dissimilar ideas as myself. I am a firm believer that more can be learned through involvement than anything that can be read in a textbook, and that means making mistakes as well. Challenging oneself and suffering occasional defeat will teach one how to cope with failure and learn how to correct it for the future, which is an important skill in the medical field, where everything may not always be

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