Due to the sharply drawn divisions of cultures, races, and ethnicities that may be observed in the United States, the cultural competence of health care providers has already become a highly essential component of nursing practice. In general, it may be defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020, para. 3). Despite all progress in the modern health care system, disparities in relation to mortality and morbidity rates among Latino/Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Alaska Natives in comparison with the white population still exist (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). However, with the integration of specific knowledge about people from various cultural backgrounds and its transformation into policies, practices, standards, and attitudes, cultural competence may substantially improve the delivery of health care to minorities and contribute to patients’ positive outcomes (Young & Guo, 2020). In addition, a patient-centered healthcare delivery with respect to patients’ cultural peculiarities and unique needs will reduce disparities through the raising of trust in the health care sector among the country’s minority groups (Abrishami, 2018).
At the same time, the expediency of cultural competency and its impact on health care should be thoroughly examined. Thus, as this topic has attracted my attention, my PICO(T) question is: Do minorities in the United States present better outcomes with culturally competent health care providers in comparison with traditional health care delivery? I used the keywords “cultural competence” in a search that generated 860 trials in the Cochrane Library, 505 articles in PubMed, 338 articles in Embase, and 10 types of research in CINAHL. At the same time, this amount of studies may be explained by the inclusion of both healthcare delivery and healthcare education in the search. With the use of a Boolean operator and more specific keywords (“cultural competence and minorities”), the number of articles decreased to 96. Through the subsequent evaluation of these works, it is possible to identify evidence that will provide a reliable answer to the chosen PICO(T) question.
References
Abrishami, D. (2018). The need for cultural competency in health care. Radiologic Technology, 89(5), 441-448.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Cultural competence in health and human services. Web.
Young, S., & Guo, K. (2020). Cultural diversity training: The necessity of cultural competence for health care providers and in nursing practice. The Health Care Manager, 39(2), 100-108. Web.