Cultural Competency
- Cultural competency and better health outcomes
- The delivery of high quality primary care that is meaningful, acceptable, accessible, effective, and cost-efficient requires a deeper understanding of the sociocultural background of patients and their families.
- Understanding these sociocultural variables in health care settings can result in more favorable outcomes for patients.
- They can also increase the potential for a more satisfying interpersonal experience between health care providers and patients.
- Reasons for a lack of cultural competency
- Often in the medical community there is a lack of awareness of differences and their impact. This most likely results from a combination of factors that may include:
- Lack of knowledge - resulting in an inability to recognize the differences.
- Self-protection/denial - leading to an attitude that these differences are not significant, or that our common humanity transcends our differences.
- Fear of the unknown or the new - because it is challenged and perhaps intimidating to get to understand something that is new that does not fit into one's world view.
- Feeling of pressure due to time constraints - which can lead to feeling rushed and unable to look in depth at an individual patient's needs.
- Often in the medical community there is a lack of awareness of differences and their impact. This most likely results from a combination of factors that may include:
- L-E-A-R-N Model of Cross Cultural Encounter Guidelines for Health Practitioners
- Listen with sympathy and understanding to the patent's perception of the problem.
- Explain your perceptions of the problem.
- Acknowledge and discuss the differences and similarities.
- Recommend treatment.
- Negotiate agreement.
Berlin, EA & Fowler, WC, Jr: A teaching framework for cross-cultural health care-Application in family practice. In Cross-cultural Medicine. West J. Med. 1983, 12:139, 93-98.