Cultural awareness and the ongoing development of cultural intelligence is imperative in today’s dynamic healthcare environment. Regardless of the location of your practice or employment, you will be required to exercise these skills multiple times daily. Understanding a patient’s social, cultural, and linguistic needs can help improve health outcomes and quality of care.
Understanding the importance of patient-centered care and having the ability to provide care to patients with diverse backgrounds and values will lead to more successful outcomes. It is also important for the healthcare services professional to consider their own core values, biases, and predispositions when working with various populations and cultures. Research has shown that the quality of communication with a patient affects the patient’s satisfaction, adherence to medical instructions, and ultimately health outcomes.
In this assessment, you should consider the patient and family as a functional unit with the patient as the primary voice in determining the care plan. Successful submission will holistically think about the patient’s care, including barriers to seeking or complying with recommended interventions and potential solutions to address identified barriers.
