Cultural Competencies

Introduction
Background
As the United States continues to grow as a diverse country, health care systems must focus more on providing cultural competent services. The term cultural competence is defined as a set of behavior and attitude within a business or operating systems that respects a person’s cultural beliefs and values in the way healthcare is delivered (Betancourt, 2002). It can be applied both at the individual level or organizational level, in which serves as a basis for individuals to work with members of different backgrounds. Cultural sensitivity, care helps create optimal patient-provider communication, delivery of high-quality services, and achievement of positive treatment outcomes (Gertner et. al, 2010). The five components …show more content…
However, health employees are not part of a health organization that encourages its staff to be culturally competent, then it will be difficult to create behavior change. There are nine techniques that have been frequently discussed in culture competency literature to encourage health care systems to adapt. The first one is to have interpreter services that provides foreign language or American Sign Language to facilitate communication between the doctor and patient. The next step is to hire minority staff that can share their cultural beliefs and language to improve communication and create a more positive environment. Hospital managers can do this by implementing policies that create an encouraging environment for minority groups and setting principals where every employee is treated with respect. Managers can follow up with human resources to ensure that every staff member is compensating equally, and track staff satisfaction. Cultural competency training programs should also be a priority for health organization. This will help increase cultural awareness and knowledge which will help and encourage behavior change amongst employees. In addition, training will help prevent miscommunication between patient and health provider who don’t share the same cultural background (Branch & Franserirector, …show more content…
Most research studies have focused on frameworks that have helped provide cultural competence care. The process of cultural competence in healthcare organizations by providing a step by step plan that clinicians, nurses, and supporting staff can follow. Moreover, understanding the importance of cultural competence in health care was presented by providing research on how it can aid in reducing health disparities. When hospital staff is able to understand the prevalence of health disparities that minority groups are more likely to be diagnosed with, they can create interventions to help deal with the group social determinants of health. Public health law has partnered with the healthcare system to ensure that all patients are receiving equal quality care which will help improve population health. The example of hospitals that have shifted to culture competence care and the process. The Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), located in eastern Pennsylvania, implemented programs to meet the needs of their serving population and hire staff that share similar cultural backgrounds as their patients. Like many health organizations, there are many barriers that they must overcome. One of the main barriers for this topic was poor communication between patient and provider. When the health provider does not speak the same language as their patient, it can lead to miscommunication

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