Cultural Differences In Healthcare

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Healthcare has proven to be a decisive and complex issue in this country and recently has been brought to the forefront of national attention. As our healthcare system has rapidly advanced it has put an emphasis on time and management of the ailment in hopes of improving efficiency. This focus on efficiency has seen society view healthcare in a robotic like nature and has proven to damaging as it has gotten rid of the bespoke type of healthcare which many cultures and individuals need to have a better opportunity at getting a better quality of treatment. This rise in a healthcare culture has seen many cultural groups as well as groups on the lower socio economic scale left behind in terms of the treatment and attention they are receiving from …show more content…

A pitfall in a healthcare system which lacks cultural competency would be one that fails to understand certain cultures dietary restrictions like the Jewish or Islamic cultures. Often times whether it be through cultural incapacity or just cultural blindness to those dietary laws many cultural groups like Jewish or Islamic can either find themselves facing broad generalizations or being stereotyped about those dietary restrictions. Many large cultural groups have sub groups which may have more or less dietary restrictions and a system that does not recognize that fails the patient in many ways. First by making broad generalizations or stereotyping cultures healthcare providers fail to create an atmosphere of understanding which damages their ability to create an effective way of communicating potentially vital information. Second by being culturally incompetent the options of treating certain cultures health problems can be restrictive and unrealistic as well. These pitfalls alone show why the importance of cultural competency when working with a diverse group of people as well as by embracing a more cultural competent system can help dispel long held notions about the healthcare system like how only certain groups can benefit from the system which in turn should get more people to use the

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