Discussion Post

Patient-centered care is vital in enhancing quality care in a diverse population. Various research studies have demonstrated the impact of sociocultural factors such as religious beliefs, lifestyles, ethnicity, race, English proficiency and cultural beliefs and attitudes on overall population health. Mainly, cultural minority groups such as African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Muslims, have been disproportionately affected by health disparities because of the underrepresentation of their cultural needs (Swihart et al., 2021). As a result, healthcare systems have taken measures to improve clinicians’ cultural competence and ethnic diversity to serve the needs of diverse populations. Cultural competence helps improve the health outcomes of these populations by alleviating health disparities.

Effective patient engagement is a critical feature of cultural competence among healthcare professionals. Notably, Cultural competence is an expansion of patient-centered care that helps the nurse understand and address patients’ values, beliefs and practices that directly conflict with nursing guidelines.  When nurses treat every patient as unique by considering their values, perceptions, and beliefs, they make them feel part of care. In addition to building rapport and trust with patients, nurses ensure culturally competent care by actively listening and learning about their cultures.  Part of the nurse responsibility is to become immersed in patient cultures, question their assumptions on other cultures and overcome language barriers. Cultural competence training and education interventions are also crucial to ensuring competent care for diverse populations (Horvat et al., 2014). Healthcare organizations should educate nurses through institutional-based programs and national conferences to improve their cultural competency and promote culturally appropriate care. Also, they should improve cultural competency at leadership and management levels during the training.