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Essay on cultural competence in healthcare
Importance of cultural competency in health care
Essay on cultural competence in healthcare
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In the case of Alejandro Flores, there are many cultural and social factors that are affecting the family’s approach to health care. The clinician does not understand the parent’s culture and is beginning to grow inpatient with how the Flores family is caring for their son. While, the Flores family is growing frustrated because the clinician is relying only on Western medicine to treat their son. Due to the frustration that is experienced by the Flores family, they decided to seek alternative folk medicine as advised by the boy’s grandmother. Instead, of contacting the clinic when Alejandro’s condition worsened the parents look to a “espiritista” for help.
Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM)
Complementary and alternative medicine
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(CAM) is used to refer to a group of diverse health and wellness therapies, practices, and treatments that are not currently considered to be part of conventional Western medicine. Complementary refers to therapies, practices, and treatments that are used along with conventional medicine. Alternative refers to therapies, practices, and treatments used in place of conventional medicine. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) focuses on a holistic approach which includes emotional, physical, mental and spiritual health. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can include mind-body interventions (i.e. meditation, acupuncture or yoga), energy therapies (i.e. Reiki healing), manipulative/body-based practices (i.e. therapeutic massage, reflexology or spinal manipulation), and natural products (i.e. herbs and dietary supplements). Cultural Values Common to the Latino Culture The Latino culture tends to be highly group-oriented. They place a strong emphasis on family as the major source of one’s identity and protection against the hardships of life. Due to this strong sense of family belonging, it is difficult for someone of this culture to trust people who are not family or very close friends. In addition, the decisions and behaviors of each individual family member are based largely on satisfying the family as a whole (familismo). For example, decisions are not to be made solely by one individual without consulting the family. When a clinician fails to recognize the Latino family dynamics and influence, it can potentially lead to conflicts, non-compliance with treatment, dissatisfaction with care and poor continuity of care. If a family is experiencing this mistrust, they will consult with other family members concerning important medical decisions which will inadvertently delay care. In order to gain the trust and confidence of a Latino patient and their family, it is imperative for a clinician to solicit family members’ opinions whether they are present at the appointment or if it entails allowing for sufficient time for the entire family to discuss important medical decisions. Potential Factors One cultural factor that is affecting the Flores family’s approach to health care is the family dynamics.
Senior Flores perspective as the Latino male is one of “Machismo.” His role is to ensure his family is financial supported. If Senior Flores has to attend the clinic appointments, this creates frustration because he is unable to work which hinders his significant role in the family. This in turn places stress onto Seniora Flores whose perspective as the Latino female is one of “Marianismo.” Seniora Flores views her role to be the primary care taker. She has lost faith in the clinician’s ability to help her son and she turns to her mother for support. The Flores grandmother is encouraging Seniora Flores to seek the help of an “espiritista.” Seniora Flores is torn between Western medicine and her Latino culture and …show more content…
beliefs. From a structural competency perspective one component that would allow for a better understanding of this situation is recognizing the structures that are shaping this clinical interaction (Metzl & Hansen, 2014). As explained thought this case study, the role of family plays an important role in how clinical instructions are perceived and carried out. It appears that both the clinician and the Flores family are not aware of the structural forces that are impacting this interaction. The clinician is not making an attempt to understand the cultural values that are shaping the parent’s care for their son. Once the clinician beings to acknowledge these influences, he can adjust his approach and treatment plan to provide better care for Alejandro. Questions to Assess Appropriate Information Clinician and healthcare staff should be familiar with the normative cultural values that may affect their relationships and interactions with their patients and their families.
It is imperative for health care staff to learn to ask patients and their families questions in a culturally sensitive manner. This exchange of vital information will lay the foundation for patient-clinician trust. The flowing list of questions will assist health care staff to gain appropriate information:
• What is your country of origin? Explain that you are looking to gain a better understanding of their cultural background.
• How long have you and your family resided in the United States?
• What is your primary language? And do you understand, speak and/or read English? Depending on the answer to these questions, one might suggest the use of an interpreter.
• What is the best way to share medical information with
you? • What do you think caused Alejandro’s asthma? This will allow the clinician to have a better insight of cultural beliefs that may influence treatment adherence. • And in your country how would his asthma be treated? This will allow the clinician to have a better insight of any complementary and alternative treatments that were used or considered. • What treatments or remedies have you tried already and how did they affect Alejandro’s asthma? Again, this will allow the clinician to explore complementary treatments that may improve treatment adherence. • Is there anyone in the household that you would like to include in Alejandro’s treatment plan? Once this information is gained and factors such as socio-economics, education, degree of acculturation and English proficiency have been considered, the clinician and health care staff will have a greater understanding of how an individual’s culture, beliefs and behaviors will affect treatment adherence. Possible Interventions When working with a Latino family, a clinician will need to take a family-focused approach that recognizes the normative cultural value of “familisom.” Their approach should not only target the patient, but incorporate other systems that have an impact on the child. Treatment plans should be developed to engage all family members. Developing a structural family treatment plan will allow for all members of the family to not only be involved, but it will also place responsibility on all family members for the care being provided to Alejandro. As with our previous case study, the clinician and his staff would also benefit from cross-cultural training and communication skills training. Cross-cultural training will allow them the opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills that are needed to adjust their approach to different cultures. In addition to trainings, the clinician’s office may want to hire more minority health care workers. By increasing the ethnic/racial diversity at the clinic this will improve access to care for minorities, improve choice, improve patient-clinician communication, and improve overall patient-clinician satisfaction.
The cultural identity that contributes to the poor health outcome of Senora Vasquez is that initially she doesn’t want to receive treatment from the hospital upon having a burned leg. Since they don’t have enough money to support the treatment Senora Benita has stop drinking the antibiotics and changed the dressing for only few times which makes the site become more infected. Prior to that, upon having the burns she put some lard or butter to the site and some herbs, which is not proven to be helpful in treating burn areas this lead to infection of the patients burn site. Also, self-care beliefs, the tendency of using home remedies, which was perceived as minor problem, was not given attention
Douglas, Rosenkoetter, Pacquiao, Callister, Hattar-Pollara, Lauderdale, Milstead, Nardi, & Purnell (2014) outline ten guidelines for implementing culturally competent care; knowledge of cultures, education and training in culturally competent care, critical reflection, cross-cultural communication, culturally competent practice, cultural competence in health care systems and organizations, patient advocacy and empowerment, multicultural workforce, cross-cultural leadership, and evidence-based practice and research. One specific suggestion I will incorporate is to engage in critical reflection. This is mentioned both by Douglas, et al. (2014) and Trentham, et al. (2007) as an important part of cultural competency. I will do this by looking at my own culture, beliefs, and values and examining how they affect my actions. I will use this information to better inform my day to day practice when working with patients with a different culture than my
This book addresses one of the common characteristics, and challenges, of health care today: the need to achieve a working knowledge of as many cultures as possible in health care. The Hmong population of Merced, California addresses the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of the Hmong immigrants, which plays out a common dilemma in western medical centers: the need to integrate modern western medicinal remedies with aspects of cultural that are good for the well-being of the patient, and the belief of the patient’s ability to recuperate. What we see is a clash, or lack of integration in the example of the story thereof. Lia, a Hmong child with a rare form of epilepsy, must enter the western hospital instead of the Laotian forest. In the forest she would seek out herbs to remedy the problems that beset her, but in the west she is forced to enter the western medical hospital without access to those remedies, which provided not only physical but spiritual comfort to those members of the Hmong culture. The herbs that are supposed to fix her spirit in the forest are not available in the western hospital. The Merced County hospital system clashes with Hmong animist traditions.
The absence of cultural competency in some health care providers, lack of community perspective integration in health care facilities, and low quality health care received by women in developing countries.These are the three most pressing health care concerns that need to be addressed in our ever changing world. The first of the issues I’ll be discussing is the lack of cultural competency amongst health care providers, as well as the shortage of education and training in cultural competency. As we all know and see the United States is a racially and ethnically diverse nation which means our health care providers need to be equipped with the necessary education and training to be able to provide for diverse populations. As an East African
The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.
The goal of this lesson is to explore how we can improve communication to eliminate language barriers between healthcare providers and patients in our organization and to establish culturally and linguistically appropriate goals, that provide safe, equal, and quality care to all our clients regardless of race, ethnic, or socioeconomic status. At the end of this lesson we should be
Through showing the different definitions of health, the authors explain how those different understandings affect patterns of behavior on health depend on different cultures. In addition, an analysis of the models of health demonstrates even western medical approaches to health have different cognitions, same as the Indigenous health beliefs. The most remarkable aspect is a balance, a corresponding core element in most cultures which is an important consideration in Indigenous health as well. From an Indigenous perspective, health is considered as being linked, and keeping the connection is a priority to preserve their health. Consequently, health is a very much culturally determined. Health practitioners should anticipate and respect the cultural differences when they encounter a patient from various cultures. In particular, this article is good to understand why the Indigenous health beliefs are not that different than western medicine views using appropriate examples and comparative composition, even though the implementation the authors indicated is a bit abstract, not
The social custom of the Hispanic heritage is based on their lifestyle where the elders have the prestigious position in the Hispanic family because of their experience. When it comes to advice, they look for their family elders; for example when one becomes sick, he goes to family elders for support, advice, and console. The elder may advise safe, simple home remedial. The Hispanic believe that the men are the head of the family and makes all major decisions while the female role are equivalent because they are the maternal powerhouse in their homes. The women are said to be...
A cultural assessment interview is very important when taking care of patients or their families who may be from a different culture than the nurse’s. In order to be able to better take care of a patient, we first need to know their own interpretation of disease and illness within their cultural context, values, and beliefs. Since I am Indian and my culture is a mix of the Indian cultural beliefs and my religion Islam, I was looking forward to this interview so that I am able to learn more about different cultures using my assessment.
Cultural Competence is important for many reasons. First, it can help develop culturally sensitive practices which can in turn help reduce barriers that affect treatment in health care settings. Second, it can help build understanding, which is critical in competence, in order wards knowing whom the person recognizes as a health care professional and whom they views as traditional healer, can aid the development of trust and improve the individual’s investment and participation in treatment. Third, our population in the United States is not only growing quickly but also changing, cultural competence will allow us as educators and healthcare workers keep up wi...
Folk medicine is an important aspect of the Appalachian region. According to Mathews, folk medicine is known in involving diseases or illnesses “which are the products of indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived from the conceptual framework of modern medicine” (Mathews 1). Folk or traditional medicine is found in all societies, throughout in history, and predates innovation of modern medicine. Folk medicine also explains roles for “indigenous practitioners”(1) who treat and restore health for the individual and community. Folk medicine beliefs and practices serve for the treatment and prevention of aliments and are resistant to change even when the cultural tradition may have gone extinct.
“Cultural awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability of standing back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions (Quappe, 2007). It is important to be aware of what culture your patient is from because than the nurse can give the patient and family the care that is not offensive o their beliefs. Cultural sensitivity Cultural sensitivity is experienced when neutral language–both verbal and nonverbal–is used in a way that reflects sensitivity and appreciation for the diversity of another. It is conveyed when words, phrases, categorizations, etc. are intentionally avoided, especially when referring to any individual who may interpret them as impolite or offensive (Giger, 2006). Being sensitivity to ones cultural is imperative, this allows the patient and or family to feel more comfortable and have their personal beliefs be respected. Different forms of cultural sensitivity include choice of words and language used while talking to a patient, the use of space while communicating, as well as who in the family to talk to and how to address patients and family. Cultural competence is a combination of the skills, knowledge and attitudes that are needed to deliver the proper excellent care to a diverse population. Cultural competence is relevant in order to be able to give
Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and patient which in turn improves healing and health.
In the clinical setting, nurses are believed to spend the most time with patients. This involves regularly dealing with people coming from different ethnicities and with different cultural practices and beliefs (Brown & Edwards, 2012). Given this cultural diversity, every patient may have his/her own cultural beliefs and practices regarding his/her own health and its treatment which can be similar or different to those ... ... middle of paper ... ... nternational Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8(5), 491-497.
It would help to get and interpreter so they can tell you what they’re saying.