Abstract
The essay will analyze the article “Organisational Systems’ approaches to improving cultural competence in Healthcare” by Janya McCalman, Crystal Jongen, and Roxanne Bainbridge. The major goal was to examine how existing systems, clinics, providers, and individuals are working to deliver more culturally appropriate health care for people with disabilities, LGBT people, and members of racial and ethnic minorities. Studies evaluating cultural competency therapies aiming at reducing health disparities in the formal healthcare sector, including RCTs, prospective cohort studies, and other observational studies, including comparators, are all included in this study (McCalman et al., 2017). Two academics analyzed the data and assessed the risk of bias. A qualitative analysis was presented due to the limited and patchy literature, which prevented pooling. 37,000 English-language citations were checked for duplications. Individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBT community were represented in 56 different research (McCalman et al., 2017). Four main categories of interventions were identified: education, change of an established protocol, patient-centered treatment, and culturally competent care at the service point (McCalman et al., 2017). Culturally competent point-of-service interventions can improve health care access for specific communities.
Introduction
United States healthcare providers must continue to focus on reducing inequalities in healthcare results and providing equal access to medical care. Many individuals feel that delivering quality health care that is both culturally sensitive and unbiased will help eliminate health inequities if it is done with cultural competence in mind. Providing culturally competent healthcare demands considering clients’ and their families’ diverse backgrounds and perceptions (Magaña, 2019). Additionally, other different means may also be utilized in which the concerned parties can communicate with one another about their health and medical conditions.
NHS’ Office of Minority Health developed the National CLAS principles to offer a framework for the execution of culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare in the United States. NHS’s National CLAS Standards address issues such as governance and leadership and workforce engagement, continuous development, and accountability. Concerns about cultural competency are still unresolved among practitioners and researchers alike (McCalman et al., 2017). Moreover, many people have yet to understand cultural competency and how it is defined and executed.
Many people disagree on what lessons and activities should help students better understand their cultural backgrounds. In addition, the demographics to which the phrase “cultural competency” refers are not well-defined. Many people focus on racial and ethnic diversity regarding cultural competency. Nevertheless, these groups are not the only ones at risk of stigmatization or discrimination; they are different in other ways of being or have healthcare needs that contribute to health disparities. The term “diversity competency” encompasses a larger range of concepts (McCalman et al., 2017). People with disabilities and people who identify as LGBT or LGBTQ are two of the less-considered target categories for AHRQ, and this systematic literature evaluation reflects that commitment to a holistic approach to priority populations.
An individual’s capability to interrelate, work, and advance meaningful connections with persons from different cultural origins is referred to as cultural competency. When one talks about someone’s “cultural heritage,” they are, in fact, referring to their unique set of values, norms, and ways of doing things (McCalman et al., 2017). Cultural competency, which entails increasing one’s personality, and understanding how to relate with people from various backgrounds, including knowing how to speak up for others, usually takes a long time (Polster, 2018). Tolerance is merely a willingness to consider others’ viewpoints other than one’s own. As a result of our words and actions, we must recognize and value diversity in all situations.
Critique of the Article
These studies can only be conducted by medical experts who work in a government-regulated healthcare system. Therefore, they are eligible for inclusion. These interventions may have certain drawbacks due to their reliance on a strong sense of cultural identification (Polster, 2018). This study analyzes and discusses a wide range of demographic characteristics. A targeted intervention, rather than a broad one, may be more beneficial to women who have had intercourse with other women (McCalman et al., 2017). Medical paperwork that patients brought to their consultations was the most common culturally competent point-of-service intervention, identifying areas of acknowledged discrepancy for a specific set of patients. These actions could be accompanied by a notification or training for providers.
Considering the specific critique of the article, it is feasible to emphasize several notions related to the examinations and analysis provided in the research. The writings that were evaluated were found utilizing a thorough search approach that included electronic databases, webpages, and journal reference lists to find peer and non-peer-reviewed articles. As a result, the empirical research in this review are assumed to be typical of published cultural competence study from the United States and Canada (McCalman et al., 2017). Nevertheless, since this was not a complete search, it is probable that some important publications were missed. Due to the scope and intricacy of systems-level cultural awareness, this evaluation only encompassed research that directly attempted to enhance or contained a cultural competency indicator, potentially eliminating studies that intended to develop cultural competency. Since systems-level techniques are complicated, researchers may have utilized terminology, for instance, diversity management, that was not included in the inquiry. It can be advised that, in order to expand the scientific basis on systems-based treatments to increase cultural competency and its effects, scholars employ standard terminology and clearly highlight this in their objectives.
People with disabilities who use virtual interventions are termed culturally competent point-of-service interventions. They are considered similar to infrastructural upgrades that make it easier for disabled individuals to go around. There was a substantial risk of bias in most of the research (McCalman et al., 2017). The most common methodological difficulties were the lack of randomization, lack of attention control, lack of follow-up, and inability to notice unexpected outcomes. Individuals from minority groups, such as the disabled, gender nonconforming, and transgender communities, are not effectively addressed in the literature on cultural competency. Those in diverse priority populations face an even greater degree of difficulty.
Furthermore, this study did not investigate the impact of cultural competency programs on care inequalities. Students were judged on their attitudes toward the target demographic rather than their abilities to enhance patient outcomes in most training programs. Due to their diverse demographics and a broad dispute over how to evaluate their performance, it was difficult to pool the findings from all included research to make significant conclusions regarding efficacy. The phrase “cultural competence” is sometimes misconstrued by LGBT and disability groups as “patient-centered” or “individualized” care (McCalman et al., 2017). Despite the fact that the human population is large, only a tiny portion of it has been studied.
Conclusion
An evaluation of treatments for enhancing culturally competent health care for those individuals with incapacities, LGBT individuals, and ethnic minority groups and members of other disadvantaged populations is the major goal of this article. Education, protocol change, patient-centered care and culturally competent care at the service point were identified as four unique intervention areas. In order to eliminate health disparities among minorities, it is necessary to maintain cultural competency at all levels of care. The ability to perceive and accept differences in appearance, behavior, and culture is known as cultural competency.
References
Magaña, D. (2019). Cultural competence and metaphor in mental healthcare interactions: A linguistic perspective. Patient Education and Counseling, 102(12), 2192-2198.
McCalman, J., Jongen, C., & Bainbridge, R. (2017). Organizational systems’ approaches to improving cultural competence in healthcare: A systematic scoping review of the literature. International Journal for Equity in Health, 16(1).
Polster, D. (2018). Confronting barriers to improve healthcare literacy and cultural competency in disparate populations. Nursing, 48(12), 28-33.