How Communication Processes in Nursing Are Influenced By Values & Cultural Factors
Introduction
The growing need for a culturally competent healthcare workforce cannot be denied in any society. The diverse ethnic and racial minorities living in foreign countries are often burdened with disabilities and diseases. The prevalence of substandard health care facilities for people from different backgrounds is growing in developed countries i.e. United Kingdom and United States. Conflicts due to culture, race, ethnicity and language are among the prime hurdles which hinder quality health care (Smedley & Smith, 2002, pp. 16).
The Role of Culture in Healthcare
Both culture and ethnicity of a person often lead to a unique pattern of perceptions and beliefs as to what the term health or illness implies. Hence, such patterns of beliefs heavily influence the manner in which the symptoms are recognized and the way they are interpreted and treated. Cultural and ethnic differences in the identification and interpretation of symptoms are a vital issue in contemporary health care (Woolshin & Bickell, 1995, pp. 273). Communication between the patients or the consumers of the services provided by the staff and the providers of the services is an essential element in regard of all aspects of health care. Barriers like racial and ethnic minorities; mistrust and fear of treatment, racism and discrimination, and differences in language and communication create gaps between the users and the providers. However if the communication gap is removed between the two groups it would be beneficial for the whole of the unit of health care. The communication may affect thoughts, moods, and the highest integrative aspects of behavior. A major way to improve access to mental health services is to coordinate care to vulnerable, high need groups so that they would not experience any disparities prevalence of illness, access to services, and quality of services if they are in underserved or vulnerable populations.
More than fifty years ago; a research was conducted to study the effects of culture on pain. Historically, pain has been considered as a biological phenomenon. The researchers affirmed that sensitivity to pain and importance of pain symptoms differ drastically by ethnicity and culture. In another study, the ethnic differences in the population seeking health care were studied (Schmidely, 2001, pp. 23). Major delays in acquiring healthcare were found to be common in people hailing from different cultures as compared to the people belonging to the culture of the land. The reason behind this could be the problem of language or the communication gap between the persons belonging to different cultural groups. The delay caused could be because the person belonging to a different culture is not able to present or communicate his/her problem to the person of another culture. May be he/she is unable to understand the problem of the victim because of the problem of language or the victim is not able to express his problem properly.
Cultural Competence in Health Care
Linguistic and cultural competence refers to a pre-determined set of behaviors, policies and attitudes which work in synergy to provide high quality health care services in cross-cultural situations. Culture implies integrated patterns of human behavior i.e. thoughts, actions, values, beliefs and customs of people hailing from different ethnic, racial, social and religious groups. Competence refers to having the capacity to provide effective medical services in the context of health care (Smith, 2000, pp. 145). Cultural competence may have a positive impact on healthy communication. There are a number of factors that influence health communication —including behaviors, language, customs, beliefs, and perspectives—cultural competence is also critical for achieving accuracy in medical research. In medical research if planning is poor and the plans do not support the principles of cultural competence, it is possible that it may yield inaccurate results.
[sociallocker id=8177]The Role of Language in Providing Quality Healthcare
The inability to communicate with healthcare providers not only creates hurdles in providing a smooth access to health care, but if often undermines compromises the level of trust and quality of treatment. It is also believed to reduce the efficiency of follow-ups. Similarly, a lack of a uniform mode of communication between the healthcare professional and the patient can lead to diagnostic errors and flawed treatment (Cross & Bazron, 1989, pp.n.d.)
The total population in the United Kingdom was last recorded at 62.6 million people in 2011 from 52.4 million in 1960, changing 20 percent during the last 50 years. There has been a drastic increase in the foreign population over the past few decades. More than half of foreign-born U.K. residents come from Latin America, a quarter from Asia, and the rest of them hail from Canada, Europe or other regions (Weinick & Krauss, 2000, pp. 171).
Often with native English speakers, communication might become an issue. A common man is not aware of the medical jargon; professionals use in their everyday practice. According to a National survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, 27% of Asians, 40% of Latinos, 23% of African Americans and 16% of Caucasians reported having communication problems in their pursuit of healthcare (Gazmararian, J. & Baker, 1999, pp. 545). Either their doctor or healthcare provider did not adequately listen to what they had to say or they could not understand the doctor or were hesitant in asking the doctor. The difference of age between the consumer and the service provide may also influence the gap of communication. For instance a young person would hesitate talking to an adult. Similarly the gender could also be other factors that play a vital role in this process. A male person would feel uncomfortable while expressing his problems to a female person. Other factors that may have a vital impact in this process includes sex, sexuality, social class etc. Age difference affects communication because different ages have different terms. Older people have terms which younger kids don’t understand and younger people have their own terms which also older people don’t understand. Every age bracket has their own terms. Youth are often taught to fit in with their social class, thus developing a personality that correlates with social status but social class factor can be felt in every aspect of society. For instance VIPs or high class people are given priority over the medium class or low class people.
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