Culture Competence Essay.

Running Head: Culture Competence Essay
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Culture Competence Essay
Australia and Sri Lanka
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Culture Competence Essay 1
“Cultural Competence Essay”
Culture refers to the custom, beliefs, ideas and behaviour of people in a particular society.
Different types of communities have different types of cultures based on their ethnic/
religious background or beliefs. And Cultural Culture refers to place where people belonging
to different cultures interact with each other and create the best of their activities by not
harming the interest of any person present in the society. The purpose of this essay is to
enlighten the reader about the information about the health and disease prevention treatment
initiated in different countries. The essay evaluates the healthcare services implemented in
two different countries that are Australia and Sri Lanka. Both the medical practitioners
present in the countries have their differential way of working due to which the services
received to the patients have different level of satisfaction. The paper is going to define the
application of health treatment in both the countries along with a comparison of the same.
Implications of belief and practices have also being illustrated along with characteristics of a
culturally competent healthcare system. Health care system of the country is highly affected
with the culture of the country that subsequently becomes a part of their activities of medical
practitioners. The paper will highlight the differences the healthcare culture of two different
countries.
Australia has culturally and linguistically diverse population that has many born overseas
resident and many originating from non-English speaking countries as well. Australia is also
called a home for refugees as it provide shelter to the people having unique and traumatic
experience of migration. Certainly more than half people present in the country call
themselves aboriginal which creates diversity in the economy. Relapse prevention in the
multicultural context requires the understanding of differences that arise through cultural and
linguistic diversity (Borkowski, 2015). The fact should be noted that the medical practitioners
present in the country face difficulty in providing services to the people of Australia because
of their nature. Preventive treatment is attained by the people only when they have faced the
problem and the disease has extended in the body. Over the past years, the beliefs of people
have started to shift and change in the context of healthcare and treatment facilities in
Australia. Many times people link religion with the treatment and add spirituality in the
practices as well. The health professionals of Australia majorly experience difficulty in
service delivery to Aboriginal people because of the disparity between Aboriginal and
Western health belief systems. Traditional aboriginal health beliefs and medical system of
country hinders or changes the ways in which the medical practitioners want to treat the

Culture Competence Essay 2
people of the country. The traditional aboriginal model of illness emphasize on the social and
spiritual dysfunction as a cause of illness (Spector, 2002).
People linking religious and spirituality beliefs with health belief make it difficult for the
medical practitioners to treat the patient and guide them with the right type of treatment
program. Specifically talking about the segment of mental illness it should be noted that the
people present in Australia consider this type of illness as a shame. Also, it should be noted
that just like other diseases, it is also a disease only that affected a person’s capability to think
properly and react towards things (Shen, 2015). However, the cultural and health belief in
case of mental illness is that it is a fatal disease and no one can get a cure of it. Family plays a
major role in providing treatment and preventive care of diseases to people. As the structure
of the families and their bond lays a great impact on the mind set and perception of people so,
it becomes really hard to deal with people who have already faced medical failure or deaths
in their families. Most of the people present in the country Australia believes that once they
will enter into operation theatre then no person will know that what is going to happen they
will not be able to survive through it. Thus, it is important for the counsellors and the nurses
to explain the proper medical procedure to the patient so that he do not get any kind of
negative thought regarding the treatment (Mengesha, Dune, & Perz, 2016).
The country Sri Lanka is also a diversified country having different types of people in it. The
country has diversified range of people belonging to different income groups as well.
Segregating the country on the basis of its income level the fact should be noted that although
the health services provided in the country are efficient and effective but still there is scope of
management of healthcare system to enlighten and guide the people of the country about the
health beliefs and reality in the environment.
The Sri Lankan Government's Health Master Plan of 2007– 2016, Healthy and Shinning
Island in the 21st Century, set out to get ready for the health challenges confronting the
general population of Sri Lanka as the new century advanced. These difficulties included
"changing statistic and illness designs, restricted assets, expanded interest and desires by
general society and the requirement for value" (Ministry of Health care and nutrition 2007).
Sri Lanka, in a similar manner as other low-and center pay nations faces a double disease
issue of transmittable and noncommunicable ailments, with going with rising restorative and
welfare costs. The 2007 wellbeing arranging plan was in this manner the administration's
reaction to this wellbeing change, or as it may be named, this "health emergency" (Ibeneme,

Culture Competence Essay 3
Eni, Ezuma, & Fortwengel, 2017). It made arrangements for an incorporated methodology
with three practical arms: preventive, corrective, and welfare.
Further, it should be noted that this plan outline various problems and health belief present in
the culture of the country that are hindering the work of medical practitioners in the
environment. It has become important for the health care practitioners like nurses and
midwives to treat the patient properly with confidence and make them understand about their
diseases as well. People in this country do not even know about communicable diseases as
well due to which they get ill very easily. The people in Sri Lanka believe that they do not
need to go to the hospital or health care centre for anything as they are healthy at their home
only. However, it is the duty of the medical practitioners present in the industry to provide
full and accurate information to people so that the can understand the critical conditions that
they can face in the environment while not taking proper care of their health (Hawley, &
Morris, 2017).
Further, it should be noted that the people of the country believe that the doctors do not know
anything and they will not treat them properly due to which instead of going to the hospital to
check for the problems, they go to local traditional medical practitioners to treat them
(Ediriweera, et. al., 2017). Further, it should be noted that traditional medical practitioners are
also good at curing the illness of the patients but it is believed that with the emergence of new
and severe problems it has become important to treat the patients with both traditional as well
as modern day health care practices.
The above mentioned paper discussed the health belief in the culture about healthcare,
disease and preventive treatment in two countries that are Australia and Sri Lanka. As both
the countries have diversified range of people living so they have variety of health beliefs in
the environment. Further comparison of difference in health beliefs in both the countries is
that the health culture in Australia is linked more to religion and spirituality practices as
people in this country believes that it is important for god to be with them while the doctors
are treating them. Having belief on god is good but having no belief on medical treatment and
care is wrong in the environment. The people of Australia need to understand that religion
and spirituality are not linked to preventive treatment and care. Their belief of religion and
spirituality lead those senses to not take the treatment or heal themselves naturally but this
thinking is wrong as it is important for every person to take preventive treatment in case them
are facing any health issue (Scott, Mannion, Davies, & Marshall, 2018).

Culture Competence Essay 4
It should be noted that there are wide variety of health beliefs in the country Australia that are
linked with the working medical. Further, on the other hand talking about the health beliefs in
the culture of Sri Lanka, the fact should be noted that the people of Sri Lanka do not have
such religious or spiritual health belief because initially they do not have even a half of cent
per cent belief on medical and disease prevention treatment. The people of the country do not
have enough knowledge about communicable and non-communicable diseases which makes
it difficult for the medical practitioners and midwives to make them understand about the
problem they are having in their body (Ring, Nyquist, & Mitchell, 2016).
Further, the people in Australia believe that they can get treated with going into operation
theatre because once they will enter in the operation room then nobody can save them.
Contradicting to the stance it should be noted that people in the country Sri Lanka do not go
in the OR because they believe in traditional medical practices like Ayurveda more that the
modern day medical practices. Even the government of the country has organized a plan to
make use of both traditional and modern day treatment to treat the patient but the people of
Sri Lanka still do not believe in going to the hospital to get treated.
It is should be noted that the issues and cultural beliefs in Australia have emerged to a
different level as people in Australia believe in medical but they link spirituality to it however
the nurses and midwives in Sri Lanka are still struggling to make people believe in medical
(Holland, 2017). Lastly, it should be noted that success rate of the treatment in Australia has
raised which shows that people are now believing in medical treatment however, in Sri Lanka
the rate is low due to which the people either go abroad to get treated or prefer Ayurveda
treatment in the environment (Arousell, & Carlbom, 2016).
Yes should be noted that the beliefs and the practices prevailing in the culture of Australia
affect the treatment and service providing process of midwives and nurses in the
environment. The spirituality and religious factor is one of the most important factors that are
affecting the service providing process in the country. Some of the nurses and midwives have
also started believing in such practices while it is wrong to say that spirits can cure people not
medical. Along with this implication it should also be noted that this practice make it more
difficult for the nurses to attain the consent of the patient till they do not see their shrunk etc.,
this makes delay in the procedure. Further, it should also be noted that this aspect raise
problem in counselling the people as well. The aboriginal and other diversified countrymen
present in Australia slightly miss the chance to get treatment and take care of themselves as

Culture Competence Essay 5
they believe in getting treated naturally without medical. However, in some cases delay in
treatment can increase the problems of patient as well (Gluyas, 2015).
So, it should be noted that before counselling the patient about the treatment, the nurses need
to be sure that they know everything about the treatment and they can convince the patient to
start the medical practice on them as well. Just like other people, the nurses and midwives are
also human being only so such kinds of cultural beliefs in health care practices irritate them
because they are trying to save a patient who is not willing to attain treatment. The nurses
also face difficulty when the non-English speaking patient comes to them for the treatment.
Talking about characteristics of Culturally Competent Health Care System it should be noted
that below mentioned are the characteristics of culturally competent health care system:
A culturally competent healthcare system is one that undertake all the difference like age,
sex, income, standard of living etc. are there society in their medical practice model and then
treat the patient with complete accountability.
Under this type of health care system, the practitioners treat all the patients equally and work
on them to save their lives. No personal issue are brought in mind while treating the patient.
Further, the willing of patients to get the treatment is also taken care of properly as it is
important for the patients also to know what kind of treatment the doctors and nurses will be
providing to them (Dudgeon, & Walker, 2015).
Counselling of nurses and midwives is also important as they need to believe that medicine is
the one that cure the patients and not any other thing. They need to train themselves in a way
so that they can get trust of patients that they are in right hands. Also, the practitioners need
to be polite while working in diverse kind of people in the healthcare system.
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the paper
represented information about the culture beliefs and practices healthcare practice of two
countries that are Australia and Sri Lanka. The above mentioned paper represented the beliefs
of people living in both the countries about the health care treatment that they get from the
hospitals and how it affects the working of nurses and midwives as well. Comparison of both
the country’s beliefs have been defined to attain the views of differences along with the
characteristics of culturally competent healthcare system is also explained in the paper.

Culture Competence Essay 6
References
Arousell, J., & Carlbom, A. (2016). Culture and religious beliefs in relation to reproductive
health. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 32, 77-87.
Borkowski, N. (2015). Organizational behavior in health care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Dudgeon, P., & Walker, R. (2015). Decolonising Australian psychology: Discourses,
strategies, and practice.
Ediriweera, D. S., Kasturiratne, A., Pathmeswaran, A., Gunawardena, N. K., Jayamanne, S.
F., Lalloo, D. G., & de Silva, H. J. (2017). Health seeking behavior following
snakebites in Sri Lanka: Results of an island wide community based survey. PLoS
neglected tropical diseases, 11(11), e0006073.
Gluyas, H. (2015). Patient-centred care: improving healthcare outcomes. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 30(4), 50.
Hawley, S. T., & Morris, A. M. (2017). Cultural challenges to engaging patients in shared
decision making. Patient education and counseling, 100(1), 18-24.
Holland, K. (2017). Cultural awareness in nursing and health care: an introductory text.
Routledge.
Ibeneme, S., Eni, G., Ezuma, A., & Fortwengel, G. (2017). Roads to health in developing
countries: understanding the intersection of culture and healing. Current Therapeutic
Research, 86, 13-18.
Mengesha, Z. B., Dune, T., & Perz, J. (2016). Culturally and linguistically diverse women’s
views and experiences of accessing sexual and reproductive health care in Australia: a
systematic review. Sexual health, 13(4), 299-310.
Ring, J., Nyquist, J., & Mitchell, S. (2016). Curriculum for culturally responsive health care:
The step-by-step guide for cultural competence training. CRC Press.
Scott, T., Mannion, R., Davies, H., & Marshall, M. (2018). Healthcare performance and
organisational culture. CRC Press.

Culture Competence Essay 7
Shen, Z. (2015). Cultural competence models and cultural competence assessment
instruments in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(3),
308-321.
Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural
Nursing, 13(3), 197-199.