Cultural Competency in Health Care

Effective communication is crucial in healthcare to provide patients with great care and satisfaction. This presentation discusses the communication process, common barriers, and strategies to reduce communication noise. Desklib offers study material for various courses.

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CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE
Introduction
Communication refers to the action of transferring
information, ideas or thoughts from one place to another
according to Nemeth (2008). The main goal is to be able to
comprehend the information that is relayed. Different
categories of communication may include: verbal, non-oral,
written, Visualization.

Communication in healthcare is a very important tool
available for giving the patients great care and provides
their satisfaction. In health care setting, it must have a
purpose that revolves around the needs of a patient.
(Bryan,2009).
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

The communication Process
Physician Message/s Channels Patient/s Meaning
Feedback
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

Effective communication is transferring messages simply
and clearly to other people as well as receiving back the
information with little or no misinterpretation as much as
possible (Burnard,1992). Effective communication
requires that the physician, caregivers and all the other
teams to understand the patient and any experiences
expressed.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

We can refer to anything that interferes with the main goal of
communication as ‘noise’ and can cause of unintentional patient
harm. Noise can greatly interfere with the understanding and
interpretations of messages and significantly affect the
interaction perceptions with others.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

These strategies may help to reduce communication noise and
result in maximum communication efficiency in a healthcare
setting:
 Sender/ health care giver: It is important to be clear, concise
and use simple language, create a trust, give enough information,
be aware of your body language and most importantly give
ample time to the patient to decipher the information.
 Recipient/ Patient: patient needs to be more attentive, ask
for clarification if not sure, confirm the message was
understood and be more aware of the body non-verbal
language
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

All the teams of various departments at our healthcare
facility have numerous chances daily to have an impact
positively on the experiences and satisfaction on many
patients. This is the reason all team members are trained to
avoid any barrier that may hinder taking care of the
patients excellently ( Arnold& Boggs 2015).
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

Common barriers that hinder effective communication in
health care:
 Jargon. Use of technical or unfamiliar terms.
 Taboos and Emotional barriers. It may be difficult for some
people to express their opinions and emotions on some topics
regarded as taboo in their communities.
Continued….
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

A different point of view and perception.
Physical disabilities like speech and hearing problems.
Lack of interest, attention irrelevance to recipient and distractions.
Lack of understanding the language and accents
Continued……
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

 Physical barriers to non-verbal communication.
 Prejudices and expectations that may end up in
stereotyping and false assumptions.
 Cultural differences.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

Improving communication tools and behavior
 Give information to the patients more compassionately.
 Put in place a range of communication strategies and tools.
 Get feedback from the patient to gauge whether they
understood the information provided.
Continued...
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

By using hospitality methodologies and guidelines established by
Disney Institute, all teams are equipped with knowledge and skills to
communicate most effectively enabling them have meaningful
connections with these patients and give quality health care (Cockerell,
2013).
We have put in place this acronym “AWARE” which has the meaning
below;
Continued….
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

Am available to assist
Welcome
Ask if I can assist
Revisit and review what was done and explain what will be done
next
Exit with kind words
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

Conclusion
Research shows when there are strong relationships between
team members’ skills of communication and a patient’s capability
to follow the medical recommendations, chronic medical
conditions that are self-managed, and adopting preventative
health behaviors. The ability of the team members to explain,
listen and empathize can profoundly impact positively on
biological and functional health results as well as the patient
satisfaction of the care experience.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE

References
 Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal
Relationships-E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for
Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
 Bryan, K. (2009). Communication in healthcare. Oxford
[England: Peter Lang.
 Cockerell, L. (2013). The Customer Rules: The 39 essential
rules for delivering sensational service. London: Profile.
 Burnard, P. (1992). Effective communication skills for health
professionals. London: Chapman & Hall.
 Nemeth, C. P. (2008). Improving healthcare team
communication: Building on lessons from aviation and
aerospace. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.
CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN HEALTH CARE