Cultural Competence in the Health Care Workforce

According to the Office of Minority Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, cultural and linguistic competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations.

This Discussion will give you the opportunity to explore how the cultural competence of health care professionals can significantly reduce the incidence of health care disparities.

To prepare for this Discussion:

€¢ Select a vulnerable/underserved population (e.g., Native Americans)
€¢ Search for an article, use one of this week’s Learning Resources or the Internet.
Assignment: No Plagiarism, APA style format, must be cited with references, everything in assignment must be fully answered done according to details assigned by my professor for maximum grading.

Write a 1-page summary of the article. Also post a comprehensive response to the following:

€¢ Describe two strategies, or methods, that health care professionals can use to deliver equal and just health care with the selected vulnerable/underserved population.
€¢ Why is this method effective?

Resources:
€¢ Readings
Course Text: Social and Behavioral Foundations of Public Health
€¢
Chapter 8, Comparative Health Cultures (pp. 154€“161)
Organizational culture and the culture of public health are the focus of this chapter.

Article: Andrulis, D., & Brach, C. (2007). Integrating literacy, culture, and language to improve health care quality for diverse populations. American Journal of Health Behavior, 31(Suppl. 1). Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

The objective of this study was to understand the interrelationship of literacy, culture, and language, and the importance of aIDressing their intersection.

Article: Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Park, E. R. (2005). Cultural competence and health care disparities: Key perspectives and trends. Health Affairs, 24(2). Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Cultural competence is one method for mitigating disparate health care for vulnerable populations. This article presents the trends in cultural competence in health care policies, practice, and education.
Article: Kreuter, M. W., Lukwago, S. N., Bucholtz, D. C., Clark, E. M., & Sanders-Thompson, V. (2003). Achieving cultural appropriateness in health promotion programs: .

The focus of this article is the five strategies often used to target programs to culturally defined groups. Then it introduces another approach, cultural tailoring, that has the potential of enhancing the other strategies in developing intervention programs that are effective for cultural groups.
Article: PATH. (n.d.). Using culture to change behavior. Retrieved March 12, 2010, from http://www.path.org/publications/files/CP_kenya_chaps_fs.pdf

The organization, PATH, collaborates with communities to reflect on a community’s cultural roots and completes community-driven projects that engage culture to promote health and are respectful of cultural complexity. This article explores some of their activities.
Standards: The Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2007). National standards on culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care. Retrieved from http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=15

This page describes the 14 national standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services for health care providers. Organizations are encouraged to integrate these standards to promote equal treatment between their health care professionals and all patient populations