Importance of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare like any other organization or institution is mainly concerned with the welfare of its clients, workers and even stakeholders. These people come from a different cultural background and therefore, a great need and importance to have them embraced in order to have better existence and good working environment for the workers and stakeholders so as to provide quality services to the clients who seek their services. Cultural diversity in healthcare is one of the key elements that should effectively be looked at because it has far-reaching negative effects if ignored by the management like the death of patients. The essay will at length discuss the techniques of addressing the concept of cultural diversity in the workplace more so in a health care using four elements of culture which includes health beliefs and practices, the pattern of family, the communication style and the last is death and dying practices.   

Culture is learned and also transmitted to the other members of a society or even an organization and institution. In any organization, there are people who come from a different cultural background and therefore, a great need to come up with mechanisms on how to address this challenge in order to avoid the cases of conflicts which in a healthcare organization may result to poor services thus death or causing permanent disability to the patients. The following are the four elements of culture and how they are used to address the cultural problem in a workplace more in a healthcare organization or even an institution (Alden, et al, 2015, p. 1133).

Cultures have different beliefs concerning the causes of diseases and how these diseases are spread from one person to another which it differs or it may be also similar to another particular culture. Also, there are different beliefs from different cultures on how and where to seek medical help in the event a member is sick and also the kind or type of medication and treatment that a patient chooses (Khanna & Mir, 2018, p. 55). Moreover, culture affects how a patient expresses sickness and pain which is different across cultures. As a result of these, the healthcare institutions ought to understand the diversity in cultures so as to understand the kind of treatment to be given to the patients that visit their health care (Banks, 2015). Culture have their own ways of seeking medical treatment and this is different from the other cultures. As result of these different beliefs and practices done by different cultures, the healthcare organizations and institution ought to understand these cultural beliefs and practices done by different so as to ensure that they have first respected their culture and offer them quality services without violating their practices and beliefs which is so important to them (Marcoux, Boivin, Arsenault, Toupin, & Youssef, 2015, p. 197). How a medical professional handle a certain patient may be different from the way he or she handles the second clients (Beagan, 2018, p. 132). This is because of the element of different beliefs and practices of how one ought to be treated. This helps the healthcare personnel minimizes cases of conflict between him or her and the client thus offering quality services and treatment (File, Valente & McLaws, 2018, p. 443). 

Role of Culture in Health Beliefs and Practices

Cultures have different beliefs and practices concerning families more so the issues of gender. Some cultures do not allow men to offer any kind of treatment to the women and also women offering any kind of treatment services to the men (Oakley, 2016). Moreover, different cultures still attach belief that men as one of the gender are less concerned about their health status and as a result affecting their health (Campos & Kim, 2017, p. 543). Women in most cultures are believed to be more concerned about their health status which makes them frequently visit the health facilities for checkup and treatment as compared to men who rarely visit health cares for checkups or treatment. Additionally, some cultures attributes that women have a limited reasoning and thinking capacity and reason as a result, they are not able to effectively and clearly explain their issues and pain to the medical professionals thus the doctors should give then sedatives for their pains which on the other men are given medication as they are able to express themselves thus right medication is given (Morton, et al, 2017). As a result of this diversity of cultures, medical practitioners need to understand these diversities so as to evaluate how to offer the treatment services to the patients. Lack of these understanding may result to conflict for example in a scenario whereby men are not treated by women and it happens in a health care may result to a conflict between the patient and the doctor which affects the delivery of services in the facility (Corin, E. (2017, p. 124)

Every person has very unique ways and styles of communication and a way they try to interact with each other in a workplace. The communication style in a healthcare like any other organization is very essential because it helps in the provision of quality patient care and also improving the satisfaction of the customers. Different cultures have different ways of communication (Kurtz, Draper & Silverman, 2016). This understanding that people and cultures have different styles of communication helps the medical practitioners develop the right attitude, awareness, skills, and knowledge on how to deal with different patients from a different cultural background. This is because the doctors are always aware of avoiding biases when dealing with patients from a different cultural background from his. Communication is one of the essential element that most people in any organization should master because it determines their success in terms of service delivery. If patients are offended due to lack of good communication which is mainly caused by the inability of the medical practitioners to effectively understand the cultures of their clients, may result to a misunderstanding between the two parties which leads to poor treatment services and even loss of a customer (Lorié, Reinero, Phillips, Zhang & Riess, 2017, p. 419). There are individuals who are passive in their communication, others are aggressive, passive-aggressive and also assertive. Accepting that societies have different communication style helps in understanding and coming up with a persuasive and kind style of communication which helps the patients and doctors understand each other and minimize the cases of negative judgment during communication (Michaelson, Pickett, Vandemeer, Taylor, & Davison, 2016, p. 32891).

Family Patterns and Impact on Healthcare

Culture is characterized by societal beliefs, norms, practices and also ritual. Each and every society has different beliefs and practices attached to death. Societies express their grief differently depending on the culture. Also, the cause of death is understood differently in different cultures and therefore, medical practitioners ought to understand how to handle different patients depending on their culture in the event of the death of their loved one in the healthcare (Irish, Lundquist & Nelsen, 2014). For example, in Korea, they do cremation and they use the ash to make colorful beads. Among the Chinese, they use white and not black color during the mourning period. These cultural differences to great extent affect the productivity, collaboration and also communication of an organization (Truong, Paradies & Priest, 2014, p. 99). In order to overcome challenges which are brought as a result difference in terms of culture like death and dying practice can be overcame understanding and creating cultural awareness and also cultural sensitivity which makes people embrace and appreciate other people’s culture and learn how to effectively live and interact with them all through thus reducing cases of conflicts and differences when dealing with patients from different culture. For the success and development of any organization or institution, it must learn on how to appreciate diversity and inclusivity of cultures so as to achieve success in terms of service delivery (Meier, et al, 2016, p. 273).

Conclusion

In conclusion, therefore, culture is an essential element that determines the success of any organization. People in an organization or even institution come from different cultures and as result organization has to adapt mechanism on how to ensure that diversity of culture is highly embraced in order to ensure that success is realized. In healthcare, doctors need to understand the health practices and beliefs from different cultures. Also, they need to understand the family pertains in terms of gender handling. Moreover, need to understand the communication styles embraced by different cultural societies. Lastly, they ought to understand different cultures in terms of death and dying practices. The purpose of the medical practitioners to be able to understand and embrace this cultural diversity is because of minimizing cases of conflict and misunderstanding between the doctors and the patients which result in poor quality services. Also, embracing cultural diversity promotes respect between the two parties in health care. In summation, cultural diversity is very key in a health care and therefore, it ought to be embraced because it has more positive important towards service delivery and success of the facility.

Communication Styles in Healthcare Organizations

References

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