Topic > The Importance of Cultural Competence Care - 1615

Awareness of cultural differences and their impact on health outcomes relies on increasing education and providing training to healthcare professionals by adopting cultural and linguistic standards and guidelines guidance needed to increase awareness of cultural competency care in medical schools and other medical and healthcare education programs. In doing so, we are not only recognizing the major component of cultural differences in health care, but also recognizing that cultural competence-based health care can help identify potential links in reducing health disparities and in the correct provision of health information and patient health care (NIH, 2015). Cultural competence-based care benefits not only the patient, but also the healthcare system as a whole, as it can promote good healthcare practices and eliminate culturally incompetent care, which according to Peterson-Iyer (2008) can ultimately encourage problems practices, such as reducing the number of patient compliance, obtaining true informed consent and may increase the risk of malpractice liability. Overall, health care should be designed to meet the needs of all ethnicities and cultures and not simply those who belong to the ethnic and cultural majority (Epner & Baile, 2012). In a diverse world, healthcare must respect, embrace and take responsibility for the social and healthcare burden to improve cultural competence. This responsibility should not only rest with the patient, but also with healthcare professionals, institutions and medical education