Striving to Understand Cultural Competence

Striving to Understand Cultural Competence

Striving to Understand Cultural Competence

Striving to understand various cultures and achieve cultural competence is a challenge for a healthcare organization and more so for a health professional. Many healthcare professionals choose the healthcare field out of a profound desire to help others. The desire to overcome barriers is often at a subconscious level as well as the endeavor to understand health beliefs, behaviors, and culture to achieve culturally competent and care for the whole patient.

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Many healthcare providers might consider an introspective approach to identify, understand, and assess their ability to care for a diverse patient population. Campinha-Bacote (2002) have developed a mnemonic “ASKED” to assist the health professional in self-assessing to determine and identify areas of sensitivity or needed understanding. The mnemonic “ASKED” represents Awareness, Skill, Knowledge, Encounters, and Desire (see table 1). It must be noted the expectation is not to become an expert or develop the falsehood of believing that one is an expert on the various cultures and differences in society. It should be understood that the difference is not only real, but is a lived experience viewed through the eyes of the patient. As such, the best approach to understand diversity is through an emotionally astute interrogative interview exchange between the healthcare professional and the patient.

Several pathways have been developed to facilitate the idea of addressing diverse cultural desires. The “LEARN” model provides a process to assist the healthcare professional with an approach to understand a patient’s difference. The mnemonic represented by the acronym “LEARN” is the process of listening, explaining, acknowledging, recommending, and negotiating. In a patient-centered approach, the diagnosis must first be understood and accepted, treatment options need to be explained, and the patient should be allowed to select the treatment that best suits his or her lifestyle, cultural belief, and other factors (Berlin & Fowkes, 1982).

References:

Berlin, E., & Fowkes, W. (1982). A teaching framework for cross-cultural health care. Western Journal of Medicine, 139(6), 934–938. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10110…

Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). Cultural competence in psychiatric nursing: Have you “ASKED” the right questions? Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 8(6), 183–187. doi: 10.1067/mpn.2002.130216

Assigned Readings:

• Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). Cultural competence in psychiatric nursing: Have you “ASKED” the right questions? Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 8(16), 183–187. doi: 10.1067/mpn.2002.130216
• Berlin, E., & Fowkes, W. (1982). A teaching framework for cross-cultural health care. The Western Journal of Medicine, 139(6), 934–938. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10110…
• Putsch, R & Joyce, M. Dealing with Patients from Other Cultures: Methodology in Cross-cultural Care, 229, 1050–1065. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK340/pdf/Book…