Question

What is the the concept of cultural competence and why is it a necessity as a permanent structure of the U.S. health care system?

Answer 1

Cultural competence in health care refers to the tolerance to the cultural differences that exits in a culturally varied society and develop a positive attitude to communicate as well as to understand the needs of the people within the society.Cultural competence is essential in health sectors to improve the quality of care and health discrimination in the minority groups.So it is therefore essential to promote adequate training on cultural competence in health sectors .inorder to develop a good relationship with the patient and provide quality care,health team need to cross the linguistic barrier.Decreased cultural competence leads to poor patient satisfaction,readmissions to the hospitals ,medication error and ultimately longer hospital stays ,which could result in disparities between patient and the staff.

For decades USA has been a dream destination for millions of immigrants from all over the globe.So US is known for its multicultural society.People have wide array of reason to chooseUS as their new home,mainly due to job prospects ,improved living and family reunions.So the expectations of this minority groups are high.Therefore it is a challenge for the health care team to understand needs of the patients and overcome the linguistic as well as cultural challenges.Without understanding cultural competence it will be dfficult for the health team to manage the dimensional society.When a health team properly uses cultural competence they will be able to maintain firm relationship with the patients and develop mutual respect and recognition ,which will prevent lengthy hospital stays.Cultural and linguistic barriers are often a hinderance in prividing quality care.Therefore cultural competence is a necessary permanent structure of the US health system.