Increasing Cultural Awareness in Healthcare Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

Despite the recent tendency of offsetting globalization due to the pandemic, the international movement of people still exists, and the cultural diversity will remain. The recipients of healthcare include representatives of numerous ethnicities, social affiliations, and other groups. Equal indiscriminate treatment of all patients can lead to conflicts between practitioners and clients, which may result in negative care outcomes. Promoting cultural awareness is essential in creating a medical environment that respects diverse identities.

Importance of Education

People carry their personal beliefs and experiences into all spheres of life, including work. One of the ways to develop a culturally sensitive environment is to select health professionals who have received training in intercultural communication. The more culturally competent the medical staff is, the fewer conflicts would arise out of misunderstanding on the basis of gender, race, age, sexuality, or culture. The administration of a healthcare organization can adjust its hiring policy accordingly.

Another venue for cultural promotion in healthcare is to actively propagate the inclusion of cultural training in education. Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare organizations can influence medical educational establishments to correct the curricula to cover cultural sensitivity. For instance, introducing corresponding subjects with mandatory completion or having cross-cultural practice may increase future health professionals’ understanding of sensitive areas. Subsequently, it will lead to an overall friendlier medical environment when the students graduate and start working.

On-Field Training

The deficit of cultural competence in healthcare will not be resolved by proper education alone. Current practitioners are going to stay in the field of patient care, even though a large number of them do not satisfy the requirements posed by modern diversity. A logical solution to the issue would be improving the skills of the active workforce. According to Henderson et al. (2018), “instead of focusing on training, cultural competency in community healthcare implies that one must attempt to develop a higher level of moral reasoning in community practitioners” (p. 611). By combining the immediate patient care experience with the knowledge relating to diversity issues, it is possible to make the healthcare setting more culturally sensitive.

Educating the already working practitioners may even provide better results than accentuating changes in the curriculum. For instance, Govere and Govere (2016) write that “a systematic review of 34 studies by Beach et al. (2005) found that training improved knowledge in 17 of 19 studies and skills and attitudes in 21 of 25 studies” (p. 408). As a result, implementing educational courses for the staff during their workdays can foster cultural sensitivity in healthcare.

Promotion of Personal Exposure

Another way of enhancing personnel’s communicative skills is by influencing their experiences outside of the work. Anyone who is exposed to foreign or unfamiliar groups, whether they are social, ethnic, sexual, or cultural, is more tolerant and welcoming of people of different backgrounds. Therefore, the administration of an organization can encourage their subordinates to establish cross-cultural connections on their own, for example, by offering vacations in foreign countries.

There is also research that proves that the inclusion of communication with people with different social orientations elevates cultural sensitivity at work. A study by Gözüm et al. (2020) delved into the causes of low cultural competence in hospitals. Their findings asserted that “health professionals’ frequently establishing contact with friends or neighbors from different cultures in their private lives was one of the major factors positively affecting cultural competency levels” (p. 15). Subsequently, promoting personal exposure is a viable way of making healthcare organizations appreciate differences.

Resources and Action Items

Changes in group behavior are accomplished via properly motivating its members. A healthcare organization possesses resources, which can compel the staff to adopt a less rigid view of other identities. Santana et al. (2018) argue for the adoption of a person-centered-care, which acknowledges patients’ gender, sexuality, race, and culture. The researchers point that an organization can “provide adequate incentives in payment programs; celebrate small wins and victories to ensure resources for staff to practice PCC” (p. 432). Ultimately, the employee policy decides the staff’s attitude to patients.

As for the actual steps an organization can take to strengthen cultural sensitivity, there are three major initiatives. According to Hollinger-Smith, entities can involve their members in “assessing their perceptions of cultural problems and conflicts, and plan how they should be fixed” (p. 8). She also argues for the adoption of policies respecting cultural differences, for instance, by adjusting when and how meals are served according to respective traditions. Finally, an organization can provide the working personnel with information on cultural subtleties, which may complicate communication.

Conclusion

Altogether, it is evident that in order to make the healthcare setting more appreciative of differences, it is necessary to work with the working staff. Promoting cultural education will make medical graduates more competent. Administrations can set up courses for the medical staff, which would raise their awareness. Encouraging personal first-hand experience of communicating with various identities will help in culturally sensitive patient care. Overall, healthcare organizations should create conditions motivating health professionals to increase their cultural competence.

References

Govere, L., & Govere, E. M. (2016). How effective is cultural competence training of healthcare providers on improving patient satisfaction of minority groups? A systematic review of literature. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 13(6), 402-410.

Gözüm, S., Tuzcu, A., & Yurt, S. (2020). Developing a cultural competency scale for primary health care professionals.Studies in Psychology. 1-22. Web.

Henderson, S., Horne, M., Hills, R., & Kendall, E. (2018). Cultural competence in healthcare in the community: A concept analysis.Health & Social Care in the Community, 26(4), 590-603. Web.

Hollinger-Smith, L. (n.d.). Diversity & cultural competency in health care settings. Mather. Web.

Santana, M. J., Manalili, K., Jolley, R. J., Zelinsky, S., Quan, H., & Lu, M. (2018). How to practice person‐centred care: A conceptual framework.Health Expectations, 21(2), 429-440. Web.