Impact of Social and Cultural Diversity in Delivery of Health Care - Literature review Example

Impact of Social and Cultural Diversity in Delivery of Health Care Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Social and cultural diversity within the members of the society have a direct impact on health care provision and different cultures and classes calls for a unique cultural competency in order to offer quality services to the populations. The health care manager plays a critical role as they manage the affairs in a health facility and can therefore link the health consumer, their families, and those practicing health care in the facility. This paper explores cultural diversity in the health care manager practice. Relationship between Culture, Socioeconomic Status, and Cultural Competence Miguel et al (2014) defines cultural competence in health care as a continuous progress process where health professionals gains morals, ethics, and conduct that enable him or her to interact with diverse people from different cultural and social diversity. Cultural competence gives knowledge on how to handle people from diverse groups and cultures. Patti (2011) explains that if patients receive services from a health facility that is considerate of their cultural or ethnic needs and expectations, the patients are more apt to return for future services and share their experience with others from different cultures. On the other hand, socioeconomic status of an individual defines the treatment they expect. Financially stable consumers with better health insurance covers expect to be treated with higher expertise and go to health facilities with greater competence. To maintain the institutions clientele, the health manager should ensure that the patients get the quality services in terms of treatment and other things like good meals. From the figure one below, it is clear that cultural competency leads to provision of satisfactory results that meet clients’ expectations and needs. This leads to client retention, and increase in number of clients, especially in private health practice. With many health consumers comes resource maximization and improved health services for many. Fig 1.1: Advantages of having cultural competence Adapted from “Health Research & Educational Trust” (2013) Principles and Elements of Cultural Competency With the rapidly increase in the aging population; it is important that cultural competence is incorporated in the health care practice to help reduce the health disparities. Cooper and Aratani (2013) explore these principles and their relationship with mental health provision. The health service managers should help to create a cultural awareness, sensitivity, and competence among the nurses and other professionals. As concepts such as illness, suffering, and care mean different to different cultures, the knowledge of those culture vital to enable the health care providers to provide better care and help avoid misunderstandings among the staff, patients, and even the families of the patients in the facility he is managing. The managers are mandated to establishing programs that will strengthen the existing programs and principles and how these culturally affect their professional practice with others (Dreachslin, Gilbert and Malone 2013). The NHMRC knowledge is witnessed in the health facilities, as the practitioners are each day adapting better ways in their practice. The manager should organize for training so that those practicing under them may be at par with a new invention and practices that may affect their line of duty. Health care mangers should support the new findings and get any equipment that may be needed to better the practice and thus lead to safety and quality services to patients. Evidence of Knowledge on NHMRC Policy and Impact on Health Services Management The NHMRC researches on health and medical issues that are established within a well- structured ethical framework that addresses national health priorities and improve the health status of all the citizens. These researches are vital for driving improvements throughout the health care system. A health manager should collaborate with the NHMRC in developing the policies and ensuring that they are adopted by the facility. The policies can be on ethical practice and evidence based advice on health practice. The health service manager is mandated to ensure that health practitioners under his or her supervision to follow these policies as medical practice one to be requires being sensitive to the patients in as much as it’s a way of getting a solution to a medical problem (Betancourt, Green, Carrillo, & Park, 2005). Farant et al. (2014) explains that people being used in the procedures should be respected through putting into considerations their feelings, opinions and their safety in the course of researching on them. The managerial body of the facility should create a conducive environment to reinforce such, and ensure that the autonomy of subjects under study is respected. The people being treated as subject of study should give a willing and voluntary consent to be used for the study (Elliott et. al, 2012). NHMRC observes the principle of beneficence whereby there is harm is made minimal and the benefits are greatest. If a research finding will be of more benefit to the society and for long-term, then it is worth even if it causer few small harm at that moment. There is, however, a requirement to minimize harm to the participants at all costs. How Cultural Competency Principles Relates to Health Consumers Both cultural competency principles and NHMRC principles have commonalities that address respect for their subjects. The health service manager’s ethics are based on respect for the health consumers, in a bid to offer quality services with consideration of people’s cultural backgrounds. They are expected to work from various locations and with different kinds of people. They are therefore expected to be culturally competent in order to deal effectively with the different people. They are expected to use resources to raise awareness among the health consumers. The projects they campaign for should not harm the people they are to use in experimenting for their programs. For example, if health managers organize for a vaccination exercise against a certain disease, they should ensure that information is available to the target population to raise awareness, and on the process ensure that ethical considerations are in place to counter any possible resistance. If the approach used by the health managers or those working under them to reach target population is wrong, then the project will be out rightly faced with opposition if they perceive the health managers as acting against their cultural beliefs, or when they feel as being used to attain a certain goal without their inclusion and willingness. There is therefore need to know the kind of approach to use in approaching a health issue of whatever nature. Identifying what is needed for Culturally Safe Professional Practice Health consumers need to feel protected and safe. It is essential for professional health managers to identify what the consumers perceive as culturally safe for them before indulging them into their practice. This is where cultural competence comes in and starts identifying cultural complexities and narrowing them down in order to come up with a clear guideline on what process to follow in engaging consumers in the projects. The approach matters as it determines whether people will accept to be part of a project or not. Continuous training of health service managers will lead to consistency in services provision and informed attention on clients. Programs should be tailor made to fit certain socioeconomic and cultural groups. According to the management in healthcare practice (2008), in advocating for a certain health program, the health service manager should explore the possible cost of such a service before publicizing it since it might be expensive for a certain group of people. This is what can lead to repackaging the service to make it more accessible many more people from different economic classes. With proper information, health consumers are able to make an informed decision, which will prevent future cases of regrets due to misinformation. For example, in advocating for various family planning methods, it is important to first identify the target group in order to select method of approach. After this, the health service manager should provide information on all aspects including the advantages and disadvantage of all the methods, so that the clients can weigh options and choose that which is more applicable to them, with his or her guidance of them, but with the final decision being the individual’s. Ways in which Health Managers Can Provide Culturally Safe Health Services Health managers should come up with programs that are sensitive to the needs of people from different cultural orientations (Hassett, 2005). These programs can only be efficient if the needs of consumers under the program are met and addressed in the best ways. They should encourage the health care providers to utilize the information they gather from their assessment of a certain culture of the individuals they are working with, in order to enhance their competence in serving them (Alberta Health Services, 2009). Prior research on the target population can lead to effectivity in the introduction of programs. Conducting a research on them acts as a source of data about their culture, which gives a guide on the kind of approach to be used (American Association of Nursing, 2009). This sheds light on the cultural settings, believes and expectations of the people and identifies the needs of the population (Rose, 2011). The health managers ensure they use an appropriate approach that they use in reaching out for populations. If the approach is non inclusive and inflexible, it will meet rejection as compared to when they are taught on the use of various approaches in order to succeed in their undertakings. This is because people will free feel to participate in a program if they participated in its implementation. Health management should involve fairness in identifying gaps and the needs for re-evaluation. In order to succeed, there should be fairness in terms of demographics and socio-economic factors. If health management is to be done to benefit only the rich class of the society, its purpose fails to be achieved since it will only reach only a small portion of the target population, locking out those without finances from accessing such services. Health managers need to have adequate resources to reach out to even those who cannot afford some services so that the essence of the project is realized. Conclusion Social and cultural competence involves knowing the cultural backgrounds of people in terms of demographics, beliefs, age, economic factors, and language among others. It is about sensitivity to other people by considering their cultural and social orientation. Cultural competence is a development process meaning it is something that is continually gained through training and exposure with an effort of reaching out to people from diverse backgrounds and giving them effective services that do not alter their beliefs and practices directly. References Alberta Health Services (2009). Enhancing Cultural Competency: a resource kit for health care professionals. Retrieved from http://fcrc.albertahealthservices.ca/pdfs/Enhancing_Cultural_Competency_Resource_Kit.pdf American Association of Nursing, (2009). Cultural Competency in Baccalaureate Nursing Education. American Association of College Nurses, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/leading-initiatives/education-resources/competency.pdf Betancourt, J., Green, A., Carrillo, E., & Park, E. (2005). Cultural Competence And Health Care Disparities: Key Perspectives and Trends. Health Affairs, 24(2), 499-505 Cooper, J. L., & Aratani, Y. (2013). Stalled on the Roadmap? The Status of Cultural and Linguistic Competence-related Policies that Impact Children’s Mental Health in the United States. Primary Health Care, 3(3), 1-5 Dreachslin, J. L., Gilbert, M. J., & Malone, B. (2013). Diversity and cultural competence in health care: A systems approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Elliott, D., Aitken, L. M., Chaboyer, W., & Australian College of Critical Care Nurses. (2012). ACCCN's critical care nursing. Chatswood, N.S.W: Mosby/Elsevier. Farrant, C., Pavlicevic, M., & Tsiris, G. (2014). A guide to research ethics for arts therapists and arts & health practitioners. Hassett, P. (2005). Taking On Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: The Experience at Aetna. Health Affairs, 24(2), 417–420. Health Research & Educational Trust. (2013). Becoming a culturally competent health care organization. Chicago, IL: Illinois. Health Research & Educational Trust. Retrieved from http://www.hpoe.org/becoming-culturally-competent Management in healthcare practice, (2008). Forum for public health in South Eastern Europe. Retrieved from http://www.snz.unizg.hr/ph-see/Documents/Publications/FPH-SEE_Book_Management_in_Health.pdf Rose, P. R. (2011). Cultural competency for health administration and public health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett. Rose, P. R. (2011). Cultural competency for health administration and public health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett. Read More