Cultural competence in healthcare

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability of healthcare professionals to effectively understand and respect patients' diverse values, beliefs, and feelings. This process includes consideration of the individual social, cultural, and psychological needs of patients for effective cross-cultural communication with their health care providers. The goal of cultural competence in health care is to reduce health disparities and to provide optimal care to patients regardless of their race, gender, ethnic background, native language, and religious or cultural beliefs. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s culture is better than others. This is a bias that is easy to overlook which is why it is important that healthcare workers are aware of this possible bias so they can learn how to dismantle it. Cultural competency training is important in health care fields where human interaction is common, including medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, social work, pharmacy, oral health, and public health fields. This training is necessary in helping eliminate any traces of ethnocentrism in healthcare workers.

The term "cultural competence" was established by Terry L. Cross and colleagues in 1989, although it was not formally incorporated in healthcare education for over a decade. In 2002, cultural competence in health care emerged as a field and has been increasingly embedded into medical education curricula and taught in health settings around the world. Society's understanding of cultural competence continues to evolve, as new models incorporate cultural humility and structural competency. Other models include the cultured-centered approach and the reflective negotiation model.