Cultural Competence in Practice

Cultural
competence in
practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University

Cultural knowledge
– Cultural knowledge forms an essential component of cultural competence
(Shen, 2015)
– Individuals typically focus on information specific to their culture, while
interacting in a community
– Culture specific knowledge cannot be necessarily transferred across varied
cultures
– Cultural knowledge facilitates gaining a sound understanding of differences that
exist in varied backgrounds, race, and ethnicities

Objective
– To determine the family patterns, communication style and
health beliefs of Canadian Aboriginal culture
– To assess the nutritional patterns, pain responses, and
perspectives on death, dying, prayer and meditation among
Canadian Aboriginals
– To explore childbirth and perinatal care, and views on religion,
faith and spirituality among Canadian Aboriginals
Figure 1
Source- (Morelli, 2017)

Health Beliefs and practices
– They have placed a faith on the concept of traditional Aboriginal healing since
thousands of years
– They provide elders a special respect due to the fact that most elders are
traditional healers
– Healing is considered a journey (Waldram, 2014)
– Due emphasis is placed on emotional and spiritual healing, in addition to
physical recovery

Health Beliefs and practices
– Health is generally considered as a harmony and balance between the spirit,
body and the mind
– Disease or illnesses are considered to occur by ignoring natural and sacred laws
– Medicinal wheel represents interweaving of health, life, and personal values of
the individuals and their community (Bell, 2014)

Family patterns
– Based on inuit approaches of raising children
– The children enjoy considerable amount of freedom and are
thought to be born from the spirit or soul of a recently
deceased community member or relative
– Places emphasis on laws of kinship
– Believes on presence of a relation between all things in the
spiritual word, animal world, human world, and plant world
(Gerlach, Browne & Suto, 2018)
Figure 2
Source- (Bissell Centre, 2016)