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…What is it? Do I understand it?

All hospitals and every healthcare staffing agency require their nurses to complete competency testing on Cultural Diversity. This topic has become what is known as Core Competency. But how many of us really think about cultural diversity in our healthcare positions, let alone understand it?

Seven Lessons to Learn About Cross-Cultural Communication:

• Don’t assume sameness
• What you think of as normal behavior may only be cultural
• Familiar behaviors may have different meanings
• Don’t assume that what you meant is what was understood
• Don’t assume that what you understood is what was meant
• You don’t have to like or accept different behavior, but you should try to understand where it comes from
• Most people do behave rationally; you just have to discover the rationale

How can you evaluate your own attitude towards diversity? Ask yourself these questions about your feelings towards other cultures:

• Do you react adversely to patient’s accents?
• Are you open to differences between cultures and different ways of doing things?
• Do you respect diverse practices and requests without judgment?
• Do you recognize that patients require equality of care irrespective of their cultural or linguistic background?
• Do you recognize and actively accommodate patient’s choices about their care?
• Do you assume you know what a patient wants or needs?
• Do you identify the need for resources to overcome barriers such as poor or insufficient English proficiency or lack of support networks?
• Do you identify the need for and obtain knowledge of sources of extra social support, for example community organizations?

Being culturally sensitive in the healthcare arena means more then working beside a foreign nurse and enjoying the different foods brought in to share at break time. Hopefully this article has provided some food for thought and the next time you complete the Core Competency on Cultural Diversity, what you’ve learned will carry over into the workplace. And, as a Westways nurse, you will lead by example.- Donna Couturié, Director of Clinical Operations

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