Cultural Competence Reflection Paper

Cultural competence comprehends a set of behaviors and attitudes that each and every professional should have or at least develop in order to provide the most effective interaction with others in cross-cultural encounters. The concept is introduced in Foundations of Health Services class as a project consisting of two main parts. First part consisted on accessing specific databases which contained a series of videos and evaluation questions that helped me analyze my standing in the five main areas of cultural competence which consist of open attitude, self awareness, awareness of others, cultural knowledge and cultural skills. The second and final part of the project comprehended a self-evaluation, where I was able to reflect on my strengths, …show more content…
I began to explore the Providers Guide to Quality and Culture database, where I watched a series of videos that consisted of scenarios where health care providers, in different cross-cultural encounters, used their competency knowledge to tailor their services towards patients. Through these examples I was able to learn that just having knowledge of a cultures background is not enough. I was able to identify in the video factors that need to be integrated, such as cultural beliefs, verbal and non-verbal communication, and social determinants, which include health literacy of patients and socio-economic factors. After the revision of different scenarios and a set of reflective questions, I proceeded to explore CultureVision database, which provided an insight of different cultures, their traditions, beliefs, politics, how they deal with health situations, among other interesting facts. From this, I learned that being aware of cultural backgrounds, how they view and practice health care is an important factor to keep in mind, as it will guide me in future endeavors to work for the patient’s best