Cultural Diversity in Health Care - Report Example

Running Head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY Cultural Diversity in Health Care and Section # of Cultural Diversity in Health Care The 21st century is the era of technology and modernization. Through extremely efficient and rapid communication systems, businesses are being conducted across the globe from one single point of command and coordination. Through strong and reliable networks, it is very easy for a person to be in one corner of the world in the morning and in the other corner in the evening. Processes are becoming more and more effective and efficient and the world is coming closer as if it were a global village. This phenomenon is called globalization. Earlier, it was very rare for people to go live in a foreign country and work. Nowadays, it’s the story of every other person. It doesn’t matter anymore if the job opportunity is from their hometown or from halfway across the world. All people look for is good living and working conditions and opportunities to grow further. Due to this factor, the existence of one single culture in a society is diminishing fast and most societies have turned into multicultural environments where people belonging to various cultures co-exist. Multicultural society is a very positive aspect of globalization and like it exists in every walk of life in the present day world, it exists in the healthcare industry too. Be it the doctors working in a hospital, the nursing staff, the administration of the health institutions or be it the patients coming for treatment, multiculturalism is evident everywhere. Especially in the developed countries of the world where people from all parts of the world come in search of better jobs and standard of living, people from all nationalities, races, ethnicities, religions and colors are found in the healthcare industry. Although the healthcare industry, like all other aspects of the society, enjoys the goods of multiculturalism, but the same have to face all kinds of challenges posed by this phenomenon as well. Let us now discuss some of the prominent problems that arise due to cultural diversity and see how they affect the healthcare industry through examples. Cultural Destructiveness In certain societies, where the dominant groups do not support multiculturalism, the minorities have to suffer from a lot of subjugation and suppression. When in social groups, they are forced to intermingle and assimilate and embrace the norms and rules of the dominant cultures and are obligated to mind the rights of the majorities but they are not given their respective rights. When it comes to the health care, this might cause many problems for the minorities. At hospitals, patients might face difficulties in communicating their problem to the doctors or they might not get the proper attention needed to be cured. When it comes to doctors belonging to a minority, they might not be trusted by many patients and might face disrespect. These and other such incidents can bring one’s self esteem badly down. Moreover, it deprives a person of a sense of belongingness and makes them feel unwelcomed in the foreign land, which might induce alienation. They do not talk about their health problems much, which may result in worsening of the problem and may cause severely adverse effects on the health of the person. Cultural Incapacity In societies where people from several different cultures, nationalities, religions and ethnic backgrounds live together, people get confused and mix cultures up. Due to the human incapacity (and sometimes unwillingness as well) people cannot remember everything about all the residing cultures. In such cases, people generalize the situations by labeling, stereotyping, etc. This creates biases and prejudices in every industry, however, when it comes to the healthcare industry, the outcomes of such generalizations might be extremely harmful. When it comes to doctors, nurses and other medical and healthcare staff, these prejudices may hinder hiring of able individuals who can serve the people better than others just because they belong to a stereotyped group of people living in the society. This harms the society in two distinct ways. Firstly, it deprives the said people of their well-deserved jobs, which may cause social unrest, and secondly, it may deprive the masses of the care and expertise of able doctors and nurses, etc. Cultural Blindness Sometimes, in societies where many cultures co-exist, but the people are careful enough not to label or stereotype people, cultural blindness starts developing. People do not want to typecast or categorize people on the bases or race, color, ethnicity, religion or any other differentiating factor, however, their mental capacity might not allow them to properly cater to so many cultures at the same time. In such a scenario, consciously or unconsciously, they start treating everyone in a generalized manner. They do not show their inclination towards any specific culture. Instead, they deal with everyone in a same predetermined way. Talking specifically about the healthcare industry, this is a good thing in the sense that it helps prevent prejudiced and biased behavior; however, the drawbacks are there as well. For example, if a doctor has decided that he would treat everyone very superficially and would not get even the least personal to any patient. This might be extremely pleasant for a patient who comes from a culture where people do not interfere in each other’s matters, however, this might be disturbing for a patient who comes from a culture where the doctor is supposed to know everything about a person and is supposed to advice the patient depending upon his lifestyle and day to day activities, in order to treat him properly. The problems discussed above and many other problems pertaining to cultural diversity may be reduced or resolved through the following: Cultural Pre-Competence In culturally-diverse societies, there is an immense need to assess different cultures and have the basic knowledge of all the cultures that exist in the society. It is important for people especially from the healthcare industry to commit to the well-being of all the members of the society irrespective of their culture, religion, nationality, color or race and to explore and assess the cultural differences and problems being faced by people from various cultures. The staff should be trained accordingly and a check should always be kept by the management that the practices being followed at the healthcare institutions (like hospitals, etc.) are free from prejudices and biases. Cultural Competence The management of the health institutions should put in effort in order to recognize the cultural differences of their employees and should train them accordingly. Moreover, they should teach their employees how to deal with various different cultures. For this purpose, they may hire cultural experts who could train the employees to be unbiased towards cultures. Moreover, they should hire employees who are not extremists and are not culturally biased. Cultural Proficiency Once the workforce is hired and the cultural differences have been assessed, it is highly important to implement it across the organization effectively and efficiently. Be it doctors, nurses, support staff, administration or any other part of the health organization, everyone needs to be highly proficient with all the cross-cultural factors. Moreover, everyone needs to be trained and taught how to put the biases and prejudices behind and treat everyone the same way. The LEARN Model Berlin and Fowkes have devised a model for dealing with cultural diversity in healthcare in an effective manner. The model says that: L: Listen – how the patient perceives the problem E: Explain – how you perceive the problem A: Acknowledge – the differences & similarities in the perceptions & discuss them R: Recommend – a suitable treatment of the problem N: Negotiate – the treatment with the patient if conflict arises Berlin and Fowkes state that if followed properly, the model can help the doctor and the patient understand each other properly and this helps them respect each other’s differences as well. An acceptable-to-all solution of the problem can thus be arrived with and both would be satisfied at the end of the day. Past, Present & Future of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare Not very long ago, the world was not this close. Differences based on nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, religion, races, etc. were more prevalent. Cultures were more distinct and people used to prefer dealing with people from similar backgrounds only. In those times, biases and prejudices were more prevalent as well and there was more racism and mono-culturalism than there is now. The healthcare industry was no exception. Patients used to prefer doctors from their own culture and doctors used to favor patients and staff with similar backgrounds. Hence, for cultural diversity, past hasn’t been much favorable. At present, however, the situation is changing. People have started welcoming differences and they do not avoid being friends with people from diverse cultures like before. Similarly, in the healthcare industry, one would find doctors, nurses and other staff from various different backgrounds happily assimilating and patients from all sorts of cultures coming for treatment and happily leaving after a nice intercultural experience. However, there are still many glitches in the system and there are many problems linked to cultural diversity that need to be addressed. Many people are still diversity-averse and tend to avoid people with differences. This creates disharmony in the system and stops many others from assimilating with people from other cultures as well. But the future of cultural diversity in the healthcare industry and otherwise as well, does not seem so bad. Where we are heading is a much better and hopeful era where people from many different cultures co-exist without much hassle, an era where new co-cultures evolve by intermixing of old cultures and such differences do not matter anymore. But there are many steps that need to be taken in order to make that happen, some of which are discussed below: The masses needed to be educated that such differences do not matter. We all are human beings and we all are equal. The best way to do this is to change the curriculum at all educational levels and to avoid using terminologies like “blacks and whites” or “Muslims and Jews” etc. Rather, everyone should be referred to as people. Employees should be trained to deal with people from different cultures according to their expectations. They should be taught the differences between cultures and things and gestures that might have completely opposite meanings in different cultures. Such trainings should not be a one-time course. They should rather be a continuous process that is carried out at organizations at regular intervals. Governments should also carry out movements from time to time to make masses aware of the cultural differences and to induce acceptability. There can be clubs and other bodies that could be responsible for this job only, i.e. to induce cultural acceptability among the masses and to reduce conflicts and hostilities. These and many other steps can be taken in order to minimize the problems that arise due to cultural diversity and to increase harmony among people from various cultures living together so that the future world that we’re heading to, is a better place to live in. REFERENCES Books Miller, F.A.; Katz, J.H. (2002). The inclusion breakthrough: unleashing the real power of diversity. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Spector, R. (2004). Cultural diversity in health & illness. Prentice Hall Health. Simmers, L.; Simmers-Nartker, K.; Simmers-Kobelak, S. (2008). Diversified Health Occupations. Cengage Learning. Gardenswartz, L.; Rowe, A. (1998). Managing diversity in health care. University of Minnesota: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Andrews, M.; Boyle, J. (2008). Transcultural concepts in nursing care. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Kelley, M.; Fitzsimons, V. (2000). Understanding cultural diversity: culture, curriculum, and community in nursing. Jones & Bartlett Learning. McGee, P. (2001). Respecting cultural diversity in health care: the way forward for the 21st century. University of Central England in Birmingham: Health and Social Care Research Centre. Tseng, W.; Streltzer, J. (2008). Cultural competence in health care. Springer. Websites Galanti, G. (2010, June 8). Cultural Diversity in Helathcare. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www.ggalanti.com RNAO (Registered Nurses’ Association, Ontario). (2007, April). Embracing Cultural Diversity in Health Care: Developing Cultural Competence. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www.rnao.org/Storage/29/2336_BPG_Embracing_Cultural_Diversity.pdf Read More