Cultural Competence in a Healthcare Setting

Essay, Pages 6 (1382 words)

Views

123

Flowers (2018) describes cultural competence as developing an understanding of one’s existence through thoughts, sensations, and environment without letting it have an unnecessary impact on those from other backgrounds. Betancourt et al. (2003) explains cultural competence in a healthcare setting to understand the importance of social and cultural influences on a person’s health beliefs. Campinha-Bacote (2002) ‘the process of cultural competence in the delivery of healthcare services’ is a model that views cultural competence as an ongoing progression. This model prompts the healthcare provider to become more culturally competent.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Cultural Competence in a Healthcare Setting ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

(TL Cross 2008) has stated that there are six stages in the cross model of cultural competence, these are as follows cultural destructiveness, cultural incapacity, cultural blindness, cultural pre-competence, cultural competence, and cultural proficiency. (TL Cross 2008) describes cultural competence to be that an organisation is portrayed by acceptance and respect for different cultures. Continuous expansion of knowledge regarding different cultures and attention to the dynamics of individual’s differences. Srivastava (2007) suggests cultural competence is for healthcare providers to apply their knowledge and skills with their patients appropriately and respectfully.

Rodriguez (1999) cited in Srivastava (2007) states that to be culturally competent it is not about knowing everything about different cultures and forgetting about one’s own culture but to understand and have respect for patient’s different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

Why is it important to health and wellbeing?

Health can be described as “A state of complete of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” World Health Organisation (WHO) (1948).

According to Kiefer (2008) wellbeing can be described as a person’s physical, mental, social and environmental aspects interacting with each other and they all have a level of importance in the life of the individual. According to Johnson (2011) a healthy population can help with economic growth of health and wellbeing, that provide financial resources. Wellbeing according to the Department of Health (2014) states that wellbeing is important to health as it can add years to one’s life, improve recovery from sickness and it can affect how staff and healthcare providers work. According to (Anspaugh et al. 2008) there are seven dimensions of health, these include physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, and environmental. These dimensions of health are inter-linked and healthcare professionals need to acknowledge for optimal patient care. (Department of Health 2014) describes wellbeing as being subjective and objective. Subjective wellbeing is asking people how they are directly and how they think. Whereas, objective wellbeing is based on human rights and needs such as health and education, objective wellbeing can be measured through self-report or life expectancy and mortality rates. Department of health (2014) states that good wellbeing can add years to people’s lives, it can also help recover from illness’s. For those who have low wellbeing it can affect the slower healing of wounds and illness’. United Nations (1948) states that all people are born free with equal dignity and human rights. The main aim of cultural competence is to deliver the best quality care to patient’s regardless of their culture and ethnic groups Betancourt et al. (2003).

Identify a current global healthcare challenge and discuss the impact of relevant factors on health and wellbeing.

A current healthcare challenge would be human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) this illness can be life threatening if not treated appropriately. People can get HIV from encountering infected blood or semen. The most common way to obtain this disease is from unprotected sex or the use of shared drug needles with someone who already has the disease (Daniel Murrell 2018). HIV/AIDS is an immune system disease, once it is in the body it cannot fight off infections such as cancers. According to (“Origin of HIV & AIDS” 2018) it states that AIDS/HIV was first identified in the 1980s. There is still no cure for the disease but there is a treatment for the virus, it is antiretroviral therapy (UNAIDS 2016). (National institute on drug abuse 2014) states that people most at risk to obtain HIV/AIDS are homosexual men engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse, injection drug abusers and ethnic minorities such as sub Saharan Africans this is because some population groups are at higher risk of HIV in their communities as there is lack of awareness of HIV/AIDS (HIV.gov 2017) and they also have difficulties accessing education and equal rights in situations in Sub Saharan Africa. Income inequality is linked to a larger quantity of people with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS 2018) and (UNHCR 2007). (Hudelson and Cluver 2015) suggests that there are generally 2.1 million adolescents in lower and middle-income countries living with AIDS/HIV in 2012. According to (World health organisation 2018) the estimated number of people of all ages living with HIV in 2017 in Africa is 25,700,000 comparing this figure to Europe at 2,300,000 there is 23,400,000 more people in Africa ranging from children to elderly living with HIV. World health organisation (2018) states that HIV/AIDS is still one of the most significant public health challenges to date. In 2017 8 out of 10 pregnancies received the treatment they needed to prevent mother to baby transmissions, progress is still being made in preventing these transmissions. With pregnant women now getting access to the treatment they need, they are now breaking the poverty cycle with their unborn child. Their child will be able to get an education and be able to get a job in return. According to (UNAIDS 2018) there has been an increase of people on HIV treatment, in 2016 there was 25,000 people on HIV treatment and in June 2018 the number increased to 34,000. A person who starts HIV antiretroviral treatment as soon as the illness is detected has the same life expectancy as someone who is HIV negative (HIV Treatment 2018). As stated in Mills (2014) in lower and middle-income countries only 62% of child births are attended to by a skilled health care worker. If the patient has no money or any way of paying for their care they are less likely to receive care from the healthcare professionals. Dahlgren and Whitehead (2006) states their goal for equity in healthcare is to have all healthcare systems closely match with the level of need for them. The use of healthcare services will be diverse in different socioeconomic groups, prioritising groups in need.

Choose an international organisation and outline the importance of current policy or strategy that might help address these needs.

UNAIDS (2018) is leading to try and end AIDS as a global health threat by 2030. UNAIDS was developed in 1996 with efforts to stop aids globally and to try and treat everyone that had the illness with antiretroviral therapy as there is still no cure for AIDS. UNAIDS plans their actions around the 78 million people that have been infected by aids, they help communities and regions infected by HIV and AIDS without UNAIDS organisation there would be no important image for AIDS response. UNAIDS is a joint programme with the united nations system and it works to convey life-saving treatment. (UNHCR 2014) and (Kanco 2015) are both non-governmental organisations that are working to stop the AIDS epidemic, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) deliver HIV and AIDS treatment in sub Saharan Africa. Kanco are also working to overcome the AIDS epidemic, they have provided 32,886 HIV services in 2017. UNAIDS currently have a ’90-90-90’ theory, this theory involves that by the year 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know that they are living with the illness, they also aim for 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV will be able to receive antiretroviral therapy treatment, they are targeting for 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral treatment will have viral suppression (90-90-90 treatment for all 2018). There are various methods to try and prevent AIDS such as male and female condoms, ending AIDS target is to reduce HIV infections to below 500,000 by 2020 (UNAIDS 2018). According to (plan international 2018) and (UNAIDS 2018) people are trying to end the AIDS health threat as part of the sustainable development goals (SDG) in various ways, it links to all 17 SDG’s. It mainly links to SDG 3, ‘good health and well-being’ as there is a lack of global health coverage and sexual health services in low- and middle-income countries. AIDS also links to SDG 10, ‘reduce inequality’ as AIDS is the primary cause of death of women between the ages of 15-44 years, HIV affects the vulnerable communities the most as these communities do not have a reliable healthcare system (UNAIDS 2018).