Cultural competence in healthcare is the capacity of caregivers to understand and respect a patient's diversities in values, beliefs, behaviors, and linguist needs when providing care. Understanding cultural differences requires a professional health provider who will be able to respond accordingly. Culturally competent healthcare systems acknowledge cultural values, assess cross-cultural interactions, recognize the potential impact of cultural diversities, expand the community's knowledge, and adapt to culture to achieve society's unique needs (Jongen et al., 2018). Furthermore, culturally competent health systems should necessitate meeting the health demands of the diverse population. Culture affects clinical practices and the illness perception by caregivers and patients themselves. Cultural competent care system ensures high healthcare accessibility to reduce health differences and miscommunication between nursing professionals and patients (White et al., 2019). To maintain a diverse health system, caregivers should incorporate cultural attitudes and internal communications that improve trust in the health care system.
My understanding and personal meaning of culturally competent care have changed. Initially, I focused on the basic understanding of nursing, which barely involved the diagnosis and treatment of human reactions to potential health problems (Jongen et al., 2018). I simply defined competent care as health assistance given to an individual for recovery without necessarily considering the appropriate procedures for undertaking the exercise. In the actual sense, culturally competent care involves considering interpersonal interactions with the diverse varieties of people (Cindy, 2017) . It requires more than just an immediate definition of treatment, whereby nurses need to be further involved in a deep understanding of the patient. In the profession, caregivers are expected to provide a cure in all areas from the body to mind to the spirit of the patient and any other hospital attendant. Health providers are responsible for ensuring that patients find comfort during the healing process despite the frightening appearance of health facilities through tactical ways of draining fears. My new understanding of these deeper tasks of caregivers has changed my meaning of culturally competent care.
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Patient dignity, comfort, and caring are three critical concepts I would incorporate in my nursing practice. Dignity is an inherent characteristic of being human, which can be manifested as a self-attributed and respectful behavior for others. Dignity can be attained not only when someone is treated right but also the treatment given to others ( Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017 ). It is deeply embedded in cultural practices, varying from one culture to another. To promote the patient’s dignity, I will involve my patients in sound conversations, give them opportunities to make choices, concentrate on their attention, and always appreciate their educative thoughts. I will treat them with humanity and respect, depending on the social levels in which they belong, to ensure we have mutual collaboration maximizing their sense of independence. Dignity is a crucial concept in meeting the common health goals of recovery.
Comfort is substantially required throughout the life of every individual. However, technological discoveries in nursing and the need to meet the curing concept with less cost has neglected the importance of nursing comfort to simple processes by non-qualified healthcare providers. By emphasizing health promotion, clinical comfort is an indispensable component of culturally congruent health care ( Cuevas, O’Brien, & Saha, 2017 ). Well-being is the key reason for healthcare provision and happens interchangeably with comfort to provide the best health outcomes of patients. I will include all comfort concepts while treating my patients, characterized by satisfying their needs, strength focusing, safety, and patients' support. Perspectives are expressed holistically to engage patients through psychology-sourced thinking to achieve their comfort, psychological, and spiritual orientation.
Nursing practices go beyond career practices and provides a deeper expression of the caring attribute. Integral nursing requires nurses to make choices in their lives to align their work with the optimal health and well-being of patients. According to Cuevas et al. (2017), caring attributes include honesty, connecting with the patients, and displaying resilience of uncertainties in the health state of patients. To achieve caring nursing qualities, I will require a great demonstration of interest in my job by listening to my patients, comforting them, and giving them sufficient information as the patient gets a chance to decide. I will practice self-giving and sympathy to ensure that the patients feel the love during the curing approaches. Caring should be given to hospital visitors, home caregivers, and relatives as well. Caring is a key characteristic in human, moral, and interpersonal interactions.
In a nutshell, culturally competent care ensure professional performance throughout healthcare systems. Caregivers are responsibly capable of meeting the requirements of the patients. Culturally competent care provides patients with the peace they require at whatever challenging situation they are experiencing. Love and care portrayed by their health providers relieve them from any fear they may acquire whenever they get to the healthcare environment. Health centers that have achieved this practice are free from cultural differences and diversities, creating a friendly environment for all cultural groups to be served without discrimination. Culturally competent care is professionally characterized by dignity, comfort, and caring concepts, which form the most critical achievement in the nursing profession. Therefore, culturally competent care is an indispensable practice in healthcare centers.
References
Cindy, R. (2017). Cultural Competence. American Journal of Nursing, 117 (7), 13. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000520925.34279.30
Cuevas, A. G., O’Brien, K., & Saha, S. (2017). What is the key to culturally competent care: Reducing bias or cultural tailoring? Psychology & Health , 32 (4), 493-507.
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 18 (1), 232. doi:10.1186/s12913-018-3001-5
White, J., Plompen, T., Tao, L., Micallef, E., & Haines, T. (2019). What is needed in culturally competent healthcare systems? A qualitative exploration of culturally diverse patients and professional interpreters in an Australian healthcare setting. BMC Public Health, 19 (1096). doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7378-9
