Cultural Competence Document Analysis

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Pages: 7

The term cultural competence is used to describe a range of compatible behaviors, policies, and attitudes within a given setting, which join up into a system. Within a health care system, health care professionals have to adopt these compatible behaviors, policies, and attitudes when discharging their mandates and duties to their patients with the highest standards possible for effectiveness and efficiency. According to Horvat, Horey, Romios, and Kis-Riqo (2014), cultural competence is best viewed as a process that starts with the healthcare professionals being sensitive to the needs of the patients. Such sensitivity leads to these healthcare practitioners leads to the emergence of self-awareness, knowledge acquisition, skills development, and reinforced competence level (Horvat et al., 2014; Rose, 2012). Cultural competence is designed to enable healthcare professionals to be effective when working in a cross-cultural situation. Moreover, the term culture, …show more content…
The support system should identify ways to help patients acclimatize to cultural diversity, especially within the healthcare professionals attending to them. There have been cases where patients refuse to be attended by some healthcare professionals because they come from a given ethnic background, which is based on a misconception. Such mistreatments of the healthcare professional are bound to have a negative impact on their attitude and capabilities. Similarly, some healthcare professionals may have a negative attitude, especially towards patients that are perceived to be poor, thereby influencing the quality of care accorded to these patients (Rose, 2012). Accordingly, the management must provide a department-based support system to help both the patients and the health professionals to adopt a cooperative and supportive system for increased