A good clinician is viewed to be an expert in performing clinical skills and as capable of exercising good clinical judgement. But in addition to this, a good clinician is also about being culturally competent.
According to the CDC National Information Prevention Network (2015), ‘cultural and linguistic competence is a set of congruent behaviours, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations’. Lauderdale (2018) also mentions in her TedTalk that cultural competence is a continuum. We start on one end of the continuum first with extreme humility and then move towards the other end with extreme openness. She also stresses further that to be culturally competent in health care is also about holding one’s beliefs and to listen to our patients because "we may think that we know about their health and health care, but actually we do not, especially in the perceptions of our patients". By taking time to know and listen to our patients, we can gain a better understanding of why they behave and react in way that’s different to ours. We also learn to be accepting of them, to be open, thus definitely enabling us to tailor our care according to their needs.
So why does cultural competence really matter? To answer this question, we must realise that our patients are becoming more diverse at this day and age. They come from different backgrounds and they come from different walks of life. Health care providers will be dealing with patients from different cultures that is why it is important to develop the awareness that differences in culture exists, and that it helps to obtain knowledge about the differences and uniqueness of other cultures so that care can be provided in an even more effective way. A gesture that may be viewed as kind in a particular culture may be seen as rude on another, that’s why cultural competence matters. Furthermore, it also matters because it leads to better patient care, better patient outcomes and it can also provide positive experiences to our patients.
The road to cultural competence is an ongoing one. Health care providers must strive towards achieving cultural proficiency. Although this is an ideal concept to achieve because culture is ever-changing, one must understand that cultural competence is a process of moving towards the other end of the continuum. One must also recognise that culture is shared, it is learned, it is universal and it also has visible and invisible characteristics. We can see how groups of people dress up and how they are recognised within a certain fashion, however we can’t see family attitudes and values until we spend more time with the people involved. Cultural competence will always be a never ending process. It is possible that the culture of a person now will be different in 10 year’s time. It is very dynamic, and it's always moving.
Image by Waitemata District Health Board (2019)
Reference List:
Jarvis, C. (2016). Physical Examination and Health Assessment: seventh edition. St.Louis, Missouri: Elsevier, Inc.
Johnson & Johnson Nursing (2018). Becoming a Culturally Competent Nurse. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r62Zp99U67Y
Npin.cdc.gov. (2015). Cultural Competence. [online] Available at: https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/cultural-competence#what
Waitemata District Health Board (2019). Cultural Competence Continuum. [image] Available at: https://www.ecald.com/resources/cultural-competence-assessment-tools/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
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