Diversity, Cultural Competence & Health Disparities
Why is Cultural Competence important?
Cultural competency is one the main ingredients in closing the disparities gap in health care. It’s the way patients and doctors can come together and talk about health concerns without cultural differences hindering the conversation, but enhancing it. Quite simply, health care services that are respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients can help bring about positive health outcomes.
Culture and language may influence:
- health, healing, and wellness belief systems;
- how illness, disease, and their causes are perceived; both by the patient/consumer and
- the behaviors of patients/consumers who are seeking health care and their attitudes toward health care providers;
- as well as the delivery of services by the provider who looks at the world through his or her own limited set of values, which can compromise access for patients from other cultures.
The increasing population growth of racial and ethnic communities and linguistic groups, each with its own cultural traits and health profiles, presents a challenge to the health care delivery service industry in this country. The provider and the patient each bring their individual learned patterns of language and culture to the health care experience which must be transcended to achieve equal access and quality health care.
Resources
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Invisible Visits by Although the United States spends almost one-fifth of all its resources on funding healthcare, the American system is dogged by persistent inequities in the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities and women. Invisible Visits analyzes how Black women navigate the complexities of dealing with doctors in this environment. It challenges the idea that race and gender discrimination, particularly in healthcare settings, is a thing of the past.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 019084020XPublication Date: 2019-01-31 -
Health Care Disparities and the LGBT Population by Health Care Disparities and the LGBT Population addresses a people whose lack of health care access, including mistreatment and refusal of services, are often omitted from discussions about health care and insurance reform.Call Number: Online & PrintISBN: 9780739187029Publication Date: 2014-04-01 -
Transcultural Nursing Education Strategies by This comprehensive guide to integrating transcultural nursing education (TCN) strategies in academic and in-service institutions is the only text to fulfill the NLN and AACN mandates for promoting cultural diversity and competencies in these settings. Incorporating evidence-based, best-practice protocols, it provides course syllabi and a wealth of additional teaching aids for all education arenas from foundation classes through in-service domains.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0826195946Publication Date: 2014-01-01 -
Healthy Places, Healthy People by Healthy Places, Healthy People (3rd ed.) provides everything that current and future nurses need to prepare, gather, organize, and analyze basic community information to create a public health strategy. A well-crafted strategy enables public health workers to effectively mobilize citizen action, working with groups and individuals to build capacity for health equity and, ultimately, a healthier future.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781940446660Publication Date: 2016-05-01 -
Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity Understanding People, Reducing Disparities by "Published in partnership with the American Public Health Association, this newest offering in the Essential Public Health series examines what is meant by culture, the ways in which culture intersects with health issues, how public health efforts can benefit by understanding and working with cultural processes, and a brief selection of conceptual tools and research methods that are useful in identifying relationships between culture and health.Call Number: Online (Health Science Campus Login)ISBN: 0763780456Publication Date: 2012-02-08 -
Teaching Cultural Competence in Nursing and Health Care by Preparing nurses and other health professionals to provide quality health care amid the increasingly multicultural and global society of the 21st century requires a new, comprehensive approach that emphasizes cultural competence education throughout professional education and professional practice.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780826177643Publication Date: 2006-01-01 -
Diversity and Cultural Competence in Health Care by Major changes are occurring in the United States population and the nation's health care institutions and delivery systems. Significant disparities in health status exist across population groups. But the health care enterprise, with all its integrated and disparate parts, has been slow to respond. Written by three nationally known scholars and experts, Diversity and Cultural Competence in Health Care: A Systems Approach is designed to provide health care students and professionals with a clear understanding of foundations, philosophies, and processes that strengthen diversity management, inclusion, and culturally competent care delivery.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9781118065600Publication Date: 2012-12-10 -
Medical Stigmata by This text observes the idea of race as a false representation for the cause of disease. Race-based medicine, an emerging field in pharmacology, aims to create a specialty market based on racial groups. Within this market, the drug BiDil set a precedent in this area of medicine targeting African Americans as its first racial group. Consequently, selecting African Americans as a 'starter group' led to ethical questions regarding the motive behind race-based medicine within the context of the larger treatment of blacks in American medical history.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9789811329913Publication Date: 2018-10-30 -
Cultural Competencies for Nurses by "By compiling the history and theory behind cultural competency in nursing and health care, this text offers key information regarding health beliefs and the impact of culture on health and illness. This new edition contains an overview of the predominant cultural competency nursing theories, impact of diversity on health disparities, information on the health beliefs of several minority groups, and case studies to enhance student learning. This text is an excellent resource for courses that emphasize health promotion and disease prevention."Call Number: Online (Health Science Login)ISBN: 1449688071Publication Date: 2013-02-26 -
American Indian Health and Nursing by The text covers the history of American Indians with a focus on the drastic changes that occurred following European contact. The book addresses the roots of American Indian nursing, including coverage of indigenous knowledge and traditional approaches to health and healing.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0826129846Publication Date: 2015-10-01 -
Emerging Issues in Hispanic Health by This innovative ethnographic study animates the racial politics that underlie genomic research into type 2 diabetes, one of the most widespread chronic diseases and one that affects ethnic groups disproportionately.Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0309086728Publication Date: 2002-11-02 -
Delivering Culturally Competent Nursing Care by Call Number: OnlineISBN: 9780826137272Publication Date: 2018-10-01
