Cultural Competence for Healthcare Providers

Across the country, the communities served by Healthcare providers are increasingly diverse. Beyond language, ethnicity, race and sex, each person has his or her own unique set of health beliefs and practices that can vary by age, gender, religious beliefs and socioeconomic status. The Cultural Competence for Healthcare Providers course addresses these issues head on by helping providers to become more knowledgeable about the patients they serve, more aware of the various sensitivities they may come across and more responsive to patients’ particular needs. By raising awareness of these varying cultural differences and educating both clinical and non-clinical health care professionals and staff on these disparities, the Cultural Competence for Healthcare Providers course helps to eliminate cultural and linguistic barriers during clinical encounters, ensure compliance with all care requirements, and improve the overall quality of care.

The Cultural Competence for Healthcare Providers course shows students how to develop and strengthen their ability to effectively interact with diverse groups of people. Students will gain an understanding of how individuals and systems provide quality care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviors. They will also learn how to tailor Healthcare delivery to meet patients’ social, cultural, and linguistic needs. In addition, students will become aware of their own cultural influences and how they may affect perceptions, diagnoses and interactions with patients and colleagues. Finally, students will learn how cultural competence serves both as a vehicle to increase access to quality care for all patient populations and as a business strategy to attract new patients and market share.

The Cultural Competence for Healthcare Providers course will address the following primary course objectives:

• Identify local population demographics and health disparities that affect them
• Define culturally competent care and the importance of providing such care
• Identify and discuss the influence of one’s own cultural values, biases, and assumptions on providing care
• Discuss ways to limit the impact of one’s personal biases when interacting with customers/patients
• Describe communication barriers between patients and staff and ways to communicate effectively during a cross-cultural medical encounter
• Discuss cultural perspectives on health and medicine among customers/patients, and implications for providers and Healthcare staff