Cultural Competency and Social Determinants in Health

Running head: HEALTH SCIENCE
Health Science
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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HEALTH SCIENCE
Table of Contents
Role of cultural liaison within the NSW health service.............................................................2
Relationship between social determinants and health outcomes...............................................2
Enact five key constructs of cultural competency within the NSW...........................................3
Relationship of healthcare policy to cultural safety...................................................................4
Barriers and facilitators to culturally safe and competent professional practice.......................5
Cultural competence and social determinants in health.............................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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HEALTH SCIENCE
Role of cultural liaison within the NSW health service
In my role as health service manager I often have to work across multicultural and
multilingual setups where I have to interact with people coming from different countries
across different races. In my role as a healthcare service manager I need to emphasis upon
cultural competency where I need to ensure that all the patient visiting the hospital unit are
provided with equal support and care services. The language and cultural differences often
makes it a problem. However, my professional enables me to travel across different
geographical locations and boundaries intermixing with people of different culture. This also
allows me the scope of learning different languages. This further allows me to identify their
individual cultural faiths and beliefs, which is crucial for being culturally sensitive.
Therefore, working across diverse cultures would help me absorb the aspects of
cultural liaison well. It covers two basic aspects such as – cultural humility and linguistic
competency. It also takes into consideration confidentiality and safety concerns while the
delivery of treatment and care within a hospital setup. As mentioned by McNab, Paterson,
Fernyhough & Hughes (2016), cultural liaison helps in the provision of holistic care
approaches. It helps in bridging of the communication gaps which allows for the
establishment of a global healthcare.
Relationship between social determinants and health outcomes
There are a number of factors which plays a crucial role in determining the health
outcomes. Some o these are social determinants, human rights and cultural competence. In
this respect, the social determinants of health mean the economy and living conditions of the
people. As mentioned by Weller, Boyd & Cumin (2014), poor socio-economic conditions
often serves a hindrance in the path of availing appropriate healthcare services. As argued by

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HEALTH SCIENCE
Garg, Toy, Tripodis, Silverstein & Freeman (2015), the people living within the rural areas
often improper or poor healthcare services as much of the health professionals do not want to
move towards the interior. The cultural competence helps effective implementation of the
human rights as it helps one develop sensitivity to others social and cultural beliefs.
Therefore, learning about some of these aspects would help me in removing the health
and support care services biases. It would help me promote the healthcare needs of the poor
and the marginalized people. In order to ensure that equitable distribution of support and care
services are provided I could personalised visit the rural and the marginalized area with a
healthcare team where free health checkups and vaccinations could be provided as a basic
healthcare objective. Some of these have been supported through NSW healthy living
programmes which aim towards promoting cultural competency in healthcare by improving
community health through healthy eating active living programs.
Enact five key constructs of cultural competency within the NSW
The five key constructs of cultural competency are as follows – cultural desire,
cultural awareness, cultural Knowledge, cultural skill and cultural encounters. The cultural
desire is the motivation of individual and organizations to engage in the process of being
culturally competent. As mentioned by Sallis, Owen & Fisher (2015), cultural desire helps
one to be open to others and accept difference or similarities. This will me be in being more
patient in my interaction with others. The cultural awareness on the other hand helps in
removing the biases possessed by one towards different cultures. The cultural knowledge will
help in understanding the world views which help me in implementing a culturally sensitive
practice. The cultural skills will help me in the collection of client data pertaining to the
patient health history. It helps one in performing cultural sensitive assessment. Therefore, I
could use these skills within my actual clinical setup where I have to encounter patients from