The Need for Cultural Awareness, Respect and Competency

THE NEED FOR CULTURAL AWARENESS, RESPECT AND COMPETENCY What is culture? It is difficult to define culture. A characteristic usually included in definitions of culture is that it is shared by people. Culture is also said to distinguish insiders from outsiders, those who are members of one cultural group from those who are not. This idea of culture leads to the following useful suppositions: 1. Culture is learned. It is transmitted from one generation to another through observation and discourse. Thus, culture is shared with those from whom it is learned and with those to whom it is taught. Older adults have had a great deal of time to learn cultural values and beliefs from those groups with which they have had contact. 2.†¦show more content†¦We speak a different language (medical terminology) and our understanding and beliefs regarding health and illness differ greatly from the population at large. Patients and staff also differ in social class. Western medicine by its nature treats patients as medical objects, a biomechanical entity. Patients are detached from their own lives and life stories and physically taken from their home settings into the unfamiliar setting of a hospital, to be treated by different specialists. But patients often resist this treatment in a number of ways and the resulting conflicts express themselves as ethical problems. Given the cultural and economic gaps between health care providers and patients, it is not surprising we often make moral judgments on the behaviour of patients. Even if we deny the reality of the situation, as health care providers we must understand that we are ethnocentric. Health care providers adhere rigidly to the western system of health care delivery and with few exceptions, do not sanction any other methods of prevention or healing. We fail to recognize or use any source of medication that has not been proven to be effective by scientific means. So how can we as providers o f health care, meet the perceived needs of the patient as defined by the patient, when we do not recognize others beliefs regarding health andShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Cultural Competency On A Healthcare Organization1021 Words   |  5 PagesImportance of Culture Competency in a Healthcare Organization The information in this paper is based on interviews from two executives, research, and personal experiences. Further it will define cultural competency and provide the viewpoints from two executive level employees on the importance of developing a culturally competent environment for their patients and staff in the healthcare setting. 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