Transcultural Concept Essay
Transcultural Concept Essay
Cultural Competence
Cultural competence refers to skills and knowledge that aid appropriate interaction with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. In healthcare, cultural competence involves understanding and respecting the values and beliefs of people from other cultures, leading to care that integrates the cultural, social, and spiritual needs of patients (Jongen et al., 2018).
Cultural Humility
Cultural humility is life long practice of learning other people’s cultures while also assessing own cultural attitudes and beliefs. Through self-assessment, individuals can identify their own cultural beliefs that influence their attitude towards care for the patient(Hughes et al., 2020). Cultural humility through self-reflection enables one to identify areas of weakness in cultural awareness, leading to a plan for improvement to attain cultural competence.
Cultural Competence in Practice
I work in a multicultural environment, which has allowed me to interact with people from diverse backgrounds. This has enhanced my cultural awareness and understanding of other cultures’ values, beliefs, and practices and how they influence perception on health and healing. Thus, I practice cultural competence by respecting these preferences and taking into consideration the socio-cultural circumstances of a patient. I apply cultural competence because it promotes respect for autonomy, enhances patient-centered care, and leads to positive patient outcomes and satisfaction. Equally, I practice cultural humility by periodically conducting self-reflection on my cultural beliefs and knowledge of other cultures. Self-assessment helps me improve my skills and expertise for cultural competence(Hughes et al., 2020).
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An Asian male came in for a medical examination at one point in my practice. I learned that he did not understand English when I initiated a conversation with him. This created a language barrier because we could not communicate. He tried to accompany his speech with signs, but I could not understand him. To overcome the barrier, I requested a colleague who speaks Mandarin to intervene. Luckily, she was not busy and acted as an interpreter. A language barrier is a common form of cultural barrier that compromises the provision of culturally congruent care. White et al. (2019) suggests that hospitals have interpreters to assist in such cases.
References
Hughes, V., Delva, S., Nkimbeng, M., Spaulding, E., Turkson-Ocran, R., Cudjoe, J., . . . Han, H. (2020). Not missing the opportunity: Strategies to promote cultural humility among future nursing faculty. J Prof Nurs, 36(1):28-33. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.06.005. Epub 2019 Jun 7. PMID: 32044049.
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC health services research, 18(1), 232. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3001-5.
White, J., Plompen, T., Tao, L., Micallef, E., & Haines, T. (2019). What is needed in culturally competent healthcare systems? A qualitative exploration of culturally diverse patients and professional interpreters in an Australian healthcare setting. BMC public health, 19(1), 1096. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7378-9.
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Then, address the following questions:
1. In your own words, define cultural competence.
2. In your own words, define cultural humility.
3. Do you feel culturally competent or culturally humble when taking care of your patients or dealing with families or communities? Why?
4. Choose an example of a time you had to overcome a cultural barrier in your nursing practice. What was the issue? What did you do to overcome the issue?