Request for a Change in US Health Care System - Paper Example

Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people from all cultures and developing a positive attitude towards all culturally different of people around your field of work. Cultural competence is a major issue affecting the USA healthcare system, due to the increase in diversity of the American population. Without cultural competent health care providers, patients are at a risk of receiving poor services and hence adverse health outcome. In the USA the black Americans, the Latinos, the Asians and other ethnic minorities have been complaining of less partnership and interaction with the physicians and less participation in most medical decisions (Ihara, 2004). The less involvement and interaction among the non-whites has led to the lower level of satisfaction with the services offered. The non-white ethnicities have also been complaining of being sidelined by the healthcare system in the delivery of care. The language barrier has also been a concern; the USA healthcare system has not been able to cater for all the patients whose English is their second language. The situation has also led to the dissatisfaction of patients from different ethnic groups (Ihara, 2004). The USA health care system should put into consideration providing culturally competent services, and this will be possible if they give fair treatment to all patients and medical practitioners regardless of their race, ethnicity, English proficiency, and cultural background.

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The system should set up strategies to ensure that they improve the services rendered to the minority groups in the USA. One of the strategies should be to provide interpreter services in all health care centers to manage the language barrier issue. Recruiting some of the nurses from local minority ethnic groups will bring fairness in the field of health care, and through this act, the minority group won't feel discriminated. The medical practitioners should be trained on cultural awareness, skills, and knowledge so that they will be able to handle their patients in the right way regardless of their cultural background. The government should locate clinics in geographical areas where they will be readily accessible for a particular population.

The department of health can partner with the education department to come up with a comprehensive curriculum that includes cultural competency for the nursing school. The nurses will be trained on the of cultural competency skill, such as local medication. The nurses will also be trained on how to use different languages to avoid language barriers when dealing with the patients. This measures will help to accomplish the changes expected in the health care system.

Achieving the changes mentioned above will be of great benefit to both the patients and the health care system. For example, it will increase the mutual respect and corporation between the patients from a different ethnic group and the health care providers (Rodak, 2013). Medical errors associated with nurses providing culturally incompetent services will decrease. It will reduce barriers that contribute to slow progress.

In conclusion, the cultural competency gap in the USA health care system should be attended to quickly and be solved using the measures mentioned above. By doing so the health care system will be fair to all ethnic groups in the USA.

Respectfully yours

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References

Ihara, E. (2004). Cultural Competence in Health Care: Is it Important for People with Chronic Conditions?. Center on an Aging Society.

Rodak, S. (2013). 16 Benefits of Healthcare Organizations' Cultural Competence. Retrieved 2017, from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/strategic-planning/16-benefits-of-healthcare-organizations-cultural-competence.html