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Cultural competence in healthcare


Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability for healthcare systems to demonstrate cultural competence toward patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors. This process includes consideration of the individual social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients for effective cross-cultural communication with their health care providers. The goal of cultural competence in health care is to reduce health disparities and to provide optimal care to patients regardless of their race, ethnic background, native languages spoken, and religious or cultural beliefs. Cultural competency training is important in health care fields where human interaction is common, including medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, social work, pharmacy, oral health, and public health fields.

The term cultural competence was first used by Terry L. Cross and colleagues in 1989, but it was not until almost a decade later that health care professionals began to be formally educated and trained in cultural competence. In 2002, cultural competence in health care emerged as a field and has been increasingly embedded into medical education curriculum since then.

Although cultural competence in healthcare is a global concept, this article focuses on cultural competence as practiced in the United States.

Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and that enables them to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. Essential elements that enable organizations to become culturally competent include valuing diversity, having the capacity for cultural self-assessment, being conscious of the dynamics inherent when cultures interact, having institutionalized cultural knowledge, and having developed adaptations to service delivery reflecting an understanding of cultural diversity. By definition, diversity includes differences in race, ethnicity, age, gender, size, religion, sexual orientation, and physical and mental ability. Accordingly, organizations should include these considerations in all aspects of policy making, administration, practice, and service delivery.


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