Cultural competency means understanding that a person’s background can influence the way they perceive information and respond to care.
Often, a lack of cultural fluency can make patients feel isolated from the systems that are designed to support and help them.
It’s not that people have bad intentions. It’s just that they struggle with how they can best serve people who come from backgrounds that are very different from their own.
In this article, we take a look at how healthcare systems can create healing spaces that are enhanced by adequate cultural competency.
The Cultural Gap in Healthcare
Healthcare systems intend to serve everyone with an equal level of care and attention to detail.
Yet despite this desire, minority patients often receive substandard service compared to those experienced by members of the majority group.
Why is that? There are fundamental reasons that are shaped by financial realities rather than cultural ones.
Minorities typically have less access to preventative care than majority group members, and this can lead to worse health outcomes over time.
Nevertheless, it is a statistically supported fact that even upper-middle-class minorities with access to health insurance still experience higher instances of medical complications than their majority group counterparts.
In these cases, the attributed cause is often cultural incompetence. In other words, physicians, nurses, and systems that struggle to effectively communicate with people who fall outside their typical cultural experience.
No one is trying to do wrong by minorities. They simply don’t have the tools that are required to leverage the same high-quality standard of care that majority group members receive.
Developing Cultural Competency
The good news? The problem described up until this point can be adjusted largely through concentrated effort.
Once healthcare systems recognize gaps in their cultural awareness, they can take steps to fill them.
The question then becomes, what steps will work? The answer to that question is nuanced and not yet fully developed.
This is to say that no one has yet identified a conclusive cure to systemic inequality. That said, it has been shown that healthcare systems that are willing to work to address these issues are at least headed in the right direction.
One of the most accessible and efficient solutions to the problem is continuing education efforts.
Classes, seminars, and trainings designed to equip medical professionals with the cultural awareness and understanding required to successfully address the needs of patients from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Robust Hiring Initiatives
Healthcare hiring and recruitment initiatives that focus on diversifying healthcare employment are another strong step in the right direction.
In fact, it’s the most organic and natural way to ensure that cultural minorities feel seen by modern healthcare systems – to ensure that they are represented within them.
In the recent past, this has been facilitated in part by diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
While these have become culturally loaded thanks to the political landscape, they are not, in fact, about prioritizing preferences for one group over another.
But simply ensuring that healthcare organizations and the wider world of business at large is creating spaces where people from all groups and backgrounds feel welcomed and comfortable.
Ultimately, however, it’s not only a question of better branding materials and minority-friendly hiring practices.
To truly ensure a culturally balanced environment in the professional healthcare setting, it is also important to recalibrate recruitment efforts.
We know, for example, that hospitals pretty much everywhere are short on nurses, administrators, and doctors.
Recruitment programs can help fill their ranks while also broadening their search to people from a wide variety of different backgrounds.
Cultural awareness in healthcare is best executed in organic ways. By ensuring that cultural minorities are taken into consideration both as patients and caregivers, healthcare systems can improve outcomes for everyone.
Interested in Being a Healthcare Hero?
If you are interested in making a positive and culturally impactful contribution to the world of healthcare, there are many paths to consider.
BSN programs and hospital administrative programs are a great first step, but there are also military-friendly master’s programs that provide flexible learning opportunities to work both in person and remotely.
For healthcare students, there are many ways to contribute both at a strategic level and at a more personal patient care capacity. Find the path that makes the most sense to you.