Cultural Differences In Healthcare Practice

Cultural Health Attributions, Beliefs, and Practices: Effects on Healthcare and Medical Education

In Vaughn, Jacquez & Bakar (2009) article ‘Cultural Health Attributions, Beliefs, and Practices: Effects on Healthcare and Medical Education’, the authors compare the different world cultures in a healthcare setting. The authors compare the diversity in culture between the African American, Latinos, and various immigrants with the white Americans.

The article explains the importance of culture and cultural diversity in medical studies. The article explains that culture is virtually present in all interactions and is of paramount importance to medical practitioners to make good healthcare decisions based on the same.

The article’s main audience include medical educators and students, nurses, doctors, and hospital staff. The article provides critical information to anyone who works in a healthcare setting. The content of the article is important reading for the general public and offers a foundation for further research on cultural diversity and communication in healthcare.

The authors effectively emphasize that educators in medical institutions must consider various cultural elements that are key to delivering health care services.  Indeed, the authors are correct in suggesting that health care providers can learn from the patients about their culture. I agree with the authors on learning different cultures to provide healthcare to people from various cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the assertion is valid because medical professionals do not choose their clientele or type of patients to serve.  It is correct that cultural competence offers medical professionals with a broad and different perspective on matters associated with the discipline.

The authors’ assertion that multilingual does not mean multicultural is vague. I do not agree with this claim since it is not clear. The claim is unclear and is not supported by expert’s studies especially those related to linguistics and world cultures. Sometimes, different cultures are associated with a single language and vice versa.   It is common that learning a particular language requires being conversant with the associated culture of origin. For example, learning the French language requires one be familiar with a few of the French norms and traditions.

Cultural competency is the ability to learn and associate with other different cultures.  Cultural competence promotes the satisfaction of the patient once the latter feels comfortable with the person providing health care service. The interaction of the patient and the medical professional during a healthcare intervention must be comfortable because of cultural competence.  For example, the healthcare provider must understand the patient’s culture and especially language and personal beliefs to harness communication and explain issues without making the patient uncomfortable.  Patient dissatisfaction causes misinterpretation, misperceptions, and frustrations on the side of the medical professional. Without cultural competence, professionals in healthcare risk subjecting patients to wrong diagnosis, inadequate and delayed treatment, and poor communication.

Cultural competence motivates professionals to work harder and improve the quality of service.  It is necessary that relation between health care professionals be addressed to improve the quality of service. One way of ensuring better relations among professionals is cultural competence. In this regard, training health care practitioners about cultural diversity and importance of harnessing the same for improved service is essential at medical schools.  Educators at the faculty of medicine can train practitioners on ways to deal with cultural diversity. Also, frequent training on matters of cultural diversity is necessary for workplaces. Health care workers relate to each other better after attending and conducting group work and team building activities.

Reference

Vaughn, L. M., Jacquez, F., & Bakar, R. C. (2009). Cultural health attributions, beliefs, and practices: Effects on healthcare and medical education. The Open Medical Education Journal, 2(1).