Cultural Competence In Health Care

In United States, the nation is increasing its diversity with populations of different ethnicities as well as cultures. Cultural competence allows healthcare organizations to provide effective methods and services of understanding and treating people with different backgrounds such as people of different cultures, demographics and languages. With many differences in population, there are disparities that must be eliminated in order to promote a better comprehension of people as well as promote better health. Today, using cultural competence to decrease health disparities maintains the top priority for United States health system to accomplish.
Social economic status is one of the current health disparities, and according to Health Policy Institute, Cultural Competence in Health Care provides that among older adults, a higher proportion of African Americans and Latinos, compared to Whites, report that they have at least one of seven chronic conditions – asthma, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure …show more content…
In the overview video Measuring Health Equity Project, Dr. Shoo Lee, Pediatrician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital suggests that an example of different risks for different groups is their diets, some diets for example are less sufficient in certain nutrition for pregnant women which might have negative impacts to the fetus and by understanding and providing supplements can help with giving birth to a healthy baby (Measuring Health Equity). This method of understanding different cultures diets can influence the way we view and treat people of different backgrounds, it is a part of cultural competence to possibly enhance infants’ health because according to the U.S Bureau of the Census Population Clock reveals that there is one birth every eight seconds (Defining and Measuring Health Disparities, pg