Cultural Competency in Healthcare: Learnings from a Placement Project

This report delves into the concept of cultural competency within the healthcare system, particularly in the Australian context. It highlights the importance of cultural competency in reducing health inequalities and enhancing the quality of healthcare services, especially for Aboriginal populations and those with limited health literacy. The report discusses how therapeutic communication and culturally sensitive practices, such as respecting individual beliefs and emotional well-being, are crucial for providing culturally safe care. It also explores the broader implications of cultural competency in organizational settings, emphasizing the need for diverse workforces and cultural competency training programs. Furthermore, the report examines a placement proposal focused on addressing the lack of knowledge about coronary heart disease (CHD) in the St. Kilda area of Melbourne, stressing the importance of culturally tailored awareness programs. The limitations of the placement proposal are discussed, along with personal reflections on the significance of cultural competency in healthcare and cross-cultural communication.

Running head: CULTURAL COMPETENCY
Cultural Competency
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Question 1.
The concepts of cultural competency refers to the ability of understanding,
communicating and interacting with the people who are from different cultures in an effective
manner. In the health care system, the practice of cultural competency is very crucial as the
health care providers have to provide service to the patients irrespective of cultures. In such
cases the health care providers also have to provide service to those people who have
different linguistic cultures also. In order to reduce the inequality in the health care sector of
the Australia, a few principles of social justice and human rights are followed in Australia
(Government of Australia, 2015). However, strong advocacy is still required in the health
care sector of Australia so that equal service can be given to the aboriginal people and to
those people who have not proper knowledge about a particular disease as well.
Question 2.
In Australia, the cultural competency is the key strategy for decreasing the
inequalities and simultaneously it will help in enhancing the quality of the health care system
in the country. As discussed by Truong et al. (2017), the population of Australia believe in
therapeutic communication before engaging into the health treatment procedure which is
unique from any other country. Therefore in order to provide culturally competent care,
health care professionals are required to engage into the therapeutic communication in order
to manage the stress or anxiety level of patients belongs to diverse culture. Australian believe
in the therapeutic touch of health professionals during the treatment or assessment procedure
which make them feel safe and empowered. Therefore, in order to provide culturally safe
care, nurses are required to engage patient in the therapeutic touch and incorporating specific
cultural values and beliefs of patient specific to the patient so that they feel safe and
comfortable. Moreover, in Australian culture , individuals are more likely to maintain eye

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contact , use humour in order to be humble and honest. Therefore, the study showed that in
order to provide culturally safe care, a health care professional is require to incorporate these
attribute for providing culturally competent care.it is required for the health professionals to
focus on spiritual needs and emotional wellbeing so that the patients feel safe and
empowered. However, the practice of cultural competency may not transfer among the nurses
in an easy way and it may take time as it is the matter of coping up a completely different
cultures (Walker et al., 2014).
Question 3.
The issues of cultural competency is not only important in the health care sector, but it
is same crucial in other organizations too so that, the employee of that organization can have
the access of a culturally free working environment in their work place. It will ultimately
enhance the employee satisfaction and productivity of that organization will increase as a
whole. Along with this, the employee retention rate and good reputation of the company will
also increase. In order to enhance the cultural competency practice in the organization, the
management should recruit more people of different cultures and they also can arrange
training programs for promoting this cultural competency practice in their organization. For
example, it can be said that, a company can hire more aboriginal people in their Australian
branch in order to promote the culturally competent workplace (Bainbridge et al., 2015).
Question 4.
In the placement proposal, it is observed that, the people of St. Kilda area of
Melbourne, do not have adequate knowledge about the Coronary heart disease (CHD) and
the lack of knowledge about the disease is one of the key reason for enhanced risks of this
disease. In order to make them aware about this disease, there should be awareness program

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in their specific language so that they can understand the fact. As a part of this, a local people
should be engaged as a trainer in that region.
Question 5.
The main limitation of this placement proposal is that, the study is mainly focused on
the population of the St. Kilda, Melbourne. Hence it can be said that, there are other various
aboriginal people in Australia, who are also required the same awareness program for
attaining the cultural competent behaviour.
Question 6.
From the placement proposal I learn about the importance of the cultural competency
in the health care sector. I also understand about the fact that the awareness about a particular
disease among the people of specific region of Australia, can reduce the risks of that disease
among them. Recently I have talked with a person who are working on the cultural
competency issues in Australia for the organization named Australian Multicultural
Foundation. After interacting with them, I have come to know that are focusing on cross
cultural communication, providing cultural diversity training by arranging workshop
regarding cultural diversity in a specific locality.

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References
Bainbridge, R., McCalman, J., Clifford, A., & Tsey, K. (2015). Cultural competency in the
delivery of health services for Indigenous people.
Freeman, T., Edwards, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Jolley, G., Javanparast, S., & Francis, T.
(2014). Cultural respect strategies in Australian Aboriginal primary health care services:
beyond education and training of practitioners. Australian and New Zealand Journal of
Public Health, 38(4), 355-361.
Government of Australia (2015). Cultural competency in the delivery of health services for
Indigenous people. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved from-
https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/4f8276f5-e467-442e-a9ef-80b8c010c690/ctgc-
ip13.pdf.aspx?inline=true
Hunt, L., Ramjan, L., McDonald, G., Koch, J., Baird, D., & Salamonson, Y. (2015). Nursing
students' perspectives of the health and healthcare issues of Australian Indigenous
people. Nurse education today, 35(3), 461-467.
Walker, R., Schultz, C., & Sonn, C. (2014). Cultural competence–Transforming policy,
services, programs and practice. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 195-220.
Truong, M., Gibbs, L., Paradies, Y., & Priest, N. (2017). " Just treat everybody with
respect": Health Service Providers' Perspectives on the Role of Cultural Competence in
Community Health Service Provision. ABNF Journal, 28(2).

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