Intercultural competence

• What is the difference between the terms cultural competence and cultural humility? There seems to be some differences between cultural competence and cultural humility. According to Purnell (2013), “cultural competence in health care is having the knowledge, abilities, and skills to deliver care that is congruent with patients cultural beliefs and practice” (p.7). In my opinion this means as a nurse you are willing to acknowledge each patients cultural differences and accommodate their…

What is your opinion of the manner in which Anna Håkansson prepared for her business trip? Could she have done a better job here? If so, how? In my opinion, Anna’s preparation was a good jumping off point but was inadequate. While her comparison of Bahrain and Sweden using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Steers, 2013) and her study of the structure of Arab extended families and the role this family structure plays in the decision-making process was a good start, she failed to study up on the…

Growing up, my parents had difficulty understanding the communal culture of the American society, in which I naturally absorbed in my developmental process. I am a first generation American. My parents are both immigrants: my mother from Colombia and my father from Puerto Rico. They had difficulty understanding events I would want to take part in with my friends that are an everyday part of an American childhood, such as sleepovers and after-school activities. Although being bilingual now…

An Invisible Subject, Space ‘The central theme of this book is social and personal space and man 's perception of it’ (Hall, E.T 1966, p. 1). This is the first sentence of a book named ‘The hidden dimension’. Space and the perception of it, people normally imagine some physical objects, or something we can see through eyes. However, when we carefully think about the space, it is actually not just an object that can touch by our hands, can be something cannot see through our eyes but still can…

Monochronic and Polychronic Differences: Time Introduction A cultural anthropologist named, Edward Hall, introduced the concepts of low context and high context cultures in the mid twentieth century. A wide range of characteristics and behaviors determine the context classification of a culture. And within the two different cultural contexts, identified by Hall, there is a contrasting view of time, which is considered to be a non-verbal tool for communication. The study of how different…

This report identifies the challenges faced by the modern health professionals in understanding the complexities of providing culturally competent Aboriginal health, physiotherapy and rehabilitation care within the Australian primary health care system. Non-Indigenous health care professionals cannot truly understand the true complexity of the past impacts of colonialism, the political process and the community’s prejudice effects on the Indigenous health status. This report intends to inspire…

According to Dowling & Welch (2004) defined cross-cultural training as a planned intervention designed to increase the knowledge and skills of expatriates to live and work effectively and achieve general life satisfaction in an unfamiliar host culture. Cross-cultural training is generally seen by researchers as necessary to increase the probability of success on foreign assignments. The training should differ according to different phases of the foreign assignment and depending on the…

Concerning the Toraja people of Sulawesi, Indonesia and the resentment the grew toward tourist when it came to altering ceremonies to attract tourist, Scollon and Scollon present the reasons for the resentment in the form of four cultural differences. These differences are ideology, socialization, discourse, and face systems. These four cultural differences served as motivation and explanation for the rejection of tourism by the Toraja people. Scollon and Scollon describe ideology as the groups…

The purpose of this essay is to allow myself, the nursing student to demonstrate understanding of how culture and health influence the nursing career, using a reflective essay. Australia offers a multicultural society, which simply means we are culturally and ethnically diverse. Nationally, we relate to more than 270 ancestries (Australian Human Rights Commission, n.d.). Cultural bias is pervasive, negative, or unconscious beliefs, attitudes or differences in understanding of a culture (Kirwan…

I think it is important to study abroad because it rewards students with the invaluable gift of being completely immersed in oftentimes, what is a new culture. Having an intercultural experience is so extremely important in order to broaden one’s sense of cultural understanding, and cultural competency. I think living in the U.S., one can often become rather ethnocentric, and lose sight of just how diverse the rest of the world is, and because of that we view cultural differences amongst…