Objectives
- Define and Discuss Culture and Cultural Competence
- Understand Diversity Today
- Establish a foundation for healthy interaction between clients and colleagues through effective, smart dialogue
- Communicate more professionally and effectively
- Learn communication skills that can remove perceived insensitivities before it begins
- Increase client satisfaction and comfortability
Define and Culture and Cultural Competence
- Culture: refers to integrated patterns of human behavior that include the language, thoughts, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions that unite a group of people. (Adapted from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov)
-
Cultural Competence: is the capability of effectively dealing with people from different cultures. (Adapted from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov)
- Skills in:
- Self-awareness
- Communication
- Cultural Literacy
- Diversity
- Discrimination
- Allyship Development
- Skills in:
How does Culture Impact Service to Clients
- Culture Informs:
- Concepts of health and healing
- Driving habits and etiquette
- Communication Styles, Interpretations and Interactions
- Nonverbal communication behaviors (gestures, touch, body language, posture, facial expression and eye contact)
- Behaviors of Patients who are seeking Healthcare
- Attitudes towards healthcare providers and healthcare system
- Expectations regarding time
- Culture Influences the way individuals:
- Define and evaluate situations
- Seek help for problems
- Present their problems, situation or information to others
- Respond to service or assistance
Reasons to Increase your Cultural Competency Awareness
- The perception of illnesses, diseases and their causes varies by culture.
- The belief systems related to health, healing and wellness are as diverse as the populations we serve.
- Culture and socioeconomic concerns influence help-seeking behaviors and attitudes towards providers and services.
- Individual preferences affect traditional and nontraditional approaches to health care.
- Providers from culturally and linguistically diverse groups are under-represented in the current healthcare delivery system.
Impact of Increasing your Cultural Competency Awareness
- You have a profound, positive impact on the quality of interactions with your clients by:
- Acknowledging their varied behaviors, beliefs and values.
- Incorporating those variables into your communication, interactions and assistance.
- Each client’s ability to communicate needs improves in direct relation to your level of cultural competency and awareness.
Cultural Engagement is a Process
Individual Culture
- Each individual’s culture:
- Is a unique representation of the variation that exists in larger culture.
- Is learned as one grows up. o Is shaped by the power relations within one’s social context.
- Changes over the lifetime of the individual.
- Effects our attitudes about seniors and those with disabilities
- The role as caregivers in our society
- Because each individual is a unique cultural package, cross-cultural encounters need strategies to open the door to discover the individual’s cultural preferences and frame of reference.
Cultural Competency Continuum – Patients in Healthcare
Where do you fall on this chart?
Clear Communication
Did you know?
- One in six people living in the United States are Hispanic (almost 57 million). By 2035, this could be nearly one in four. (CDC 2015)
- The average physician interrupts a patient within the first 12 seconds. (Family Medicine 2001)
- In the United States, 20% of people speak a language other than English at home. (CIS 2014)
- The Latino population in the United States has grown by 43% between 2000 and 2010. (Census 2011)
- Of the foreign born population in the United States, 17% are classified as newly arrived (arriving in 2005 or later). (Census 2011)
- 1 out of 2 adult patients has a hard time understanding basic health information
Barriers to Communication
Our personal culture includes what we find meaningful — beliefs, values, perceptions, assumptions and explanatory framework about reality. These are present in every communication.
Clear Communication
The Foundation of Culturally Competent Interactions
- Use plain language to describe who you are, why you are there and where you are going
- Use Specific, clear and plain language when speaking with clients and giving directions or setting expectations
- Use a variety of instruction methods
- Allow client to see your mouth when speaking if they are unable to hear you
- Use your digital map when necessary to describe your route
- Give client your card to assist in communicating your purpose and directions for return
- Repeat yourself when necessary or try a new method if the one you are using is not effectively communicating your message
- Confirm Client has understood your message and is comfortable with the plan for their transportation
- Spend a few minutes building rapport at the beginning of each trip
- Speak directly to the client
- Speak in the first person.
- Speak in a normal voice. Try not to speak fast or too loudly.
- Speak in concise sentences.
- If using an Interpreter, Interpreters are trained in terminology; however, interpretation will be more smooth if you avoid acronyms, jargon or technical terms.
- Be aware of the cultural context of your body language.
- Match the volume and speed of the patient’s speech.
- Mirror body language, position and eye contact of client.