Clinical Supervisors and Cultural Competence †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Clinical Supervisors and Cultural Competence. Answer: Introduction Since time immemorial, cultural and racial inequalities have proven to be one of the chief reasons behind fatal conflicts among races across the world. In this era of globalization, cultural competence is highly crucial due to high rise is immigration. The term Cultural competence can be defined as a range of effective, behavioral and cognitive skills that leads an individual to communicate appropriately and effectively with a person from another cultural background. When it comes to healthcare, cultural competence is defined as the ability of the healthcare service providers to provide ideal health care services that meet the cultural, social as well as linguistic requirements of the healthcare service users (Wilson et al., 2013). In this report, discussion about the ways of being a culturally safe practitioner and how my personal cultural beliefs, behaviours and values will contribute or distract from being a culturally safe practitioner in a multicultural health care environment h as been performed. In order to develop an effective cultural competence, one must have the ability of self-reflection and self-assessment. With the help of this report, I will be able to understand my own intercultural competence along with my ability to conduct effective cross-cultural interaction as a healthcare practitioner. Considering the fact that, a continuous mismatch has been noticed in the healthcare practices and cultural competency policies, in this report, a recommendation that healthcare practitioners should undergo cultural competency training has been made. In Australia, cultural competence training is considered to be part of the training provided to the healthcare providers as well as to the nurses (Thompson Thackrah 2013). Thus it can be understood that with the increasing amount of cultural competence among the healthcare providers in Australia, the healthcare world is moving towards its goal of providing healthcare services that are culturally safe (Berger et al., 2014). Since my childhood, I have been brought up in an atmosphere where cultural values like honesty, equality and respect are always been encouraged. Therefore, it can be serrated that my personal cultural values are the result of my up bring as well as my academic and community culture. I was born and brought up in New Zealand in Australia where cultural beliefs like family and child protection, modesty, freedom of speech and gender equality were highly valued. I believe that these values and beliefs of my family and society have been a part of my personality which will help me to develop and maintain cultural competence in my healthcare practice. These cultural values will enable me to provide respect and protect the fundamental rights of both the healthcare users as well as the providers as outlined in the code of ethics for Nurses in Australia. While my personal cultural values like respect, equality and honesty will be my strength as healthcare professionals in Australia, my cultural value of adaptability can create challenges for me during my practice. Considering the fact that I have to move to Marshall Island for my health care practice, I need to be mentally prepared to experience and adapt beliefs and values that may sometime go against my own cultural values or beliefs in order to adapt the new environment. Along with that, I am also prepared to modify my behaviours in order to be the part of the society I will be receding in. Developing adaptability is the first and crucial step to be a culturally safe practitioner. According to researchers, more than 28.5 percent of Australian residents are born overseas which indicates the high amount of cultural diversity in the continent (Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2017). Thus, it can be clearly understood that the health care service of Australia needs to highly culture competent in order to provide an effective service to the healthcare users. However, providing cultural competency training to the healthcare practitioners and professionals alone will not be able to eradicate cultural conflict in the healthcare service. It has been found that health literacy has enhanced the number of peoples engagement in health care services. This not only ensures a smoother treatment process but also. Along with the healthcare providers, proper education should be provided to the healthcare service users in order to achieve equilibrium in the multicultural society. When it comes to migrants, cultural competence can be considered as one of the most important factors for the successful cross cultural transition. It has been found that the years of residence in a society are directly proportional to the cultural competence of an individual. Effective education regarding the importance of compatibility in healthcare service will enable the healthcare users of Australia to understand that all of them have equal right of availing the healthcare facilities. While treating highly vulnerable healthcare service users, being a culturally safe practitioner, I have to access the ability of the service users to adapt the dominant culture. If I found the healthcare service user to be in a highly vulnerable stage and hence lacks the capability to accept the dominant culture, I will ensure that his or her cultural, as well as religious requirements, are met so that he/she feels that his/her culture is being respected and acknowledged. This, in turn, will develop a feeling of safety in the mind of the service user. I am aware of the fact one of my cultural beliefs may contradict with the culture of the society where I will be practising my healthcare service. Growing up in a liberal society I highly believe that gender equality and freedom of speech are two basic fundamental right of all human beings. However, in several societies, discriminatory behavior is considered to be a part of the cultural practice. Women are given less respect and rights compared to men. They are often treated as commodities and their freedom of speech is taken away from them. In several cultural practices, women are forced to stay at home while men enjoy full freedom n the society. Physical, sexual and psychological tortures on women are highly common in these societies. As a result, the majority of women are found to be suffering from diabetes and sexual diseases as a result of unhealthy diet and sexual activities (McMurray Clendon, 2014). Another cultural belief of mine that may contradict with the cultural beliefs of the society I will be practising in illogical religious beliefs. In several cultural practices, religious beliefs often found to be overriding the health advice. People habituated in such cultural practices often disobey the healthcare advice of the healthcare professionals for the sake of religious activities (Mohamed, 2017). Several healthcare users refuse to undergo medication since they believe that this will made them violate their religious teachings. Being an atheist by cultural belief, it will be very hard for me to allow the healthcare service users to neglect their health for the sake of religion. Considering the fact that children are the most vulnerable part of any society, they should be always looking after and protected by the adults. Hence, it will be difficult for me to be culturally competency if I notice that the health of the children is being compromised in the name of religion. In order to deal with the above mentioned sensitive condition, I will need the assistance and guidance of experienced culturally safe healthcare practitioners. Besides that, I believe that after gathering experience as a healthcare practitioner, I will be able to handle such sensitive cases efficiently and will develop professionalism that will enable me to demonstrate respect towards the values, beliefs and behavior of the cultural groups I will be working with. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that in order to become a successful culturally safe healthcare practitioner it is highly crucial to develop respect and competence towards other cultural practice. It is also understood that in nursing practice, valuing the culture of other individuals is a compulsory requirement. While reflecting on my own cultural values, beliefs and behaviors, I was able to access my strength and weaknesses as healthcare professionals. I found that while honesty, respect and adaptability can be considered as my strength, I may face issues to show cultural competence where gender inequality and illogical religious beliefs are being demonstrated. This assessment enables me to give extra efforts in order to develop the areas of weaknesses in me in order to fulfil my goal to be a culturally safe practitioner. I have understood that in order to make healthcare service users feel safe and acknowledged it is crucial to provide a holistic environmen t to them. Reference List Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017). Migration, Australia, 2015-2016 (cat.no. 3412.0) Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3412.0 Berger, G., Conroy, S., Peerson, A., Brazil, V. (2014). Clinical supervisors and cultural competence. Clinical Teacher, 11(5), 370-374. doi: 10.1111/tct.12170 McMurray, A., Clendon, J. (2014). Community health and wellness: Primary health care in practice (5th ed.). Chatswood, Australia: Elsevier Australia. Mohamed, J. (2017, July). The impact of colonisation on health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Paper presented at New South Whales Nursing and Midwifery Association (NSWNMA) 72nd Annual Conference Professional Day. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-shiftpodcast/id1030657038?mt=2 Thompson, S., Thackrah, R. (2013). Refining the concept of cultural competence: Building on decades of progress. The Medical Journal of Australia, 199(1), 35-8. Retrieved from https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2013/199/1/refining-concept-culturalcompetence-building-decades-progress Wilson, J., Ward, C., Fischer, R. (2013). Beyond culture learning theory: What can personality tell us about cultural competence? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(6), 900-927. Doi:10.1177/0022022113492889