Global Flashcards
Define cultural competency
A set of aligned and transparent skills, attitudes, and principles that acknowledge, respect and work together as a system towards optimal interactions between individuals and various cultures and ethnic groups in a community
Explore the importance of cultural competency for physio practice
Tailored care: Cultural competency enables practitioners to personalise their treatment plan to suit patient values, religious beliefs and personal needs. Awareness and understanding of helps to build rapport, which in turn increases engagement with treatment.
Overcoming barriers: Cultural competency helps to ensure healthcare is accessible to more people. Having a culturally diverse workforce can help with bringing unique skills and experiences.
Reduction of health disparities: A culturally competent practitioner may understand how different cultures have different beliefs about root causes for conditions/ pain. Understanding this helps to be able to have meaningful and effective conversations.
Holistic care: Ensuring cultural competency allows practitioners to have meaningful conversations about emotional and spiritual wellbeing where appropriate/ possible.
Explore the important of different global perspectives for physio
UK: In the UK, physio is a commonly recognised profession, and is provided both privately and through the NHS. There is generally a different expectation for patients who are privately treated compared to the NHS. Treatment techniques are mostly western and are evidence based.
America: Again physios are recognised, and have certain guidelines they need to follow. However, there is no NHS so patients will be paying for their treatment, effecting their view on it - i.e. they may expect more say/ more hands on treatment.
India: Physios in India are different to the UK/ USA in the sense that they use a mixture of western and traditional treatments. This is important to recognise, as people from these backgrounds may have different expectations/ beliefs about the treatment they will receive in the UK.
Others: In other countries e.g somalia, physio is not a thing, so it could be a very foreign idea for someone of that culture getting it for the first time in the UK.
Evaluate the importance of equality within healthcare, and evaluate potential challenges and possible solutions to provide equitable and inclusive healthcare.
Equality ensures that regardless of a persons race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, etc. a personal has equal access to healthcare. Supported by 2010 equality act, which protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics.
A potential challenge would be a disparity in access to a healthcare setting due to there being no access for those in wheelchairs. This would limit access to a service, going against the principles of EDI and causing healthcare disparities. To address this, a healthcare centre could introduce wheelchair ramps/ lifts to the infrastructure, to enable access for more people.
Evaluate the importance of diversity within healthcare, and evaluate potential challenges and possible solutions to provide equitable and inclusive healthcare.
Diversity refers to the recognition and appreciation of different backgrounds whether that be cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, or any other factor. It is crucial for HCPs to have an understanding of the diversities within a community, and how they can affect the beliefs and values of patients/ colleagues.
On potential challenges related to a diverse population could be a language barrier. If a practitioner is unable to communicate with a patient, it makes many elements of a treatment including gaining informed consent, and education, difficult. There are multiple ways to manage this challenge, for example by promoting a diverse workforce to match the diverse community, to increase the likelihood that there is some team members who will be able to communicate with patients with other primary languages. Secondly, a service could introduce the use of translators either in person or via application, to allow better access to quality healthcare for people who speak other languages.
Evaluate the importance of inclusivity within healthcare, and evaluate potential challenges and possible solutions to provide equitable and inclusive healthcare.
Inclusivity refers to the principle related to creating an environment where workers/ service users feel valued and supported, allowing everyone the opportunity to participate and thrive.
An example of a potential challenge related to this would be reduced access to care, whether this be via geographical or financial barriers. An inclusive service needs to be accessible to all and in some cases, services aren’t accessible to people in rural areas, or from low socioeconomic backgrounds due to the expenses related to travel etc. To address this, services could explore the development of digital services, offer flexible appointment times, strengthen community outreach, or offer transportation aid. The aim of all of these methods it to increase the amount of people who can access and are included within a healthcare provision
