Cultural respect generally means taking into consideration the belief systems of an individual, since these beliefs play an important role in influencing personality, communications, thoughts, and actions. Cultural respect is critical for building and developing a proper framework that understands the needs of an individual and provides them services accordingly. When a particular health care provider is dealing with diverse patients, it is important for them to consider the cultural aspect to open doors to high-quality healthcare communication, deliver uninterrupted health services and eliminate patient-doctor disparities.
To explain this let’s take an example of how a Chinese patient consulting in America may be showing respect to the doctor by avoiding eye contact. But in America, lack of eye contact is considered rude and in the medical field, it is considered as an indicator of depression. Understanding these differences and how some actions and languages have various meanings for different people is crucial when treating patients of backgrounds different from one’s own.
Here cultural competence should be achieved by various medical organizations. It is the ability of healthcare providers to meet the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of their patients. It is important for the effective delivery of quality healthcare. A lack of cultural competence can lead to poor patient satisfaction and outcomes, and frustration for both patients and healthcare workers. So Respect is Important for Patient Engagement
Culture sometimes puts barriers in treatment, such as linguistic contrariety, racial and ethnic problems, illiteracy hindrance and so many more. If these obstacles are removed or made less, it will help to achieve accuracy in medical research, yield the right medical information and recognize diseases and illnesses properly. A culturally respectful health organization will tailor its engagement strategies, care, and materials to fit their patients’ beliefs, attitudes, and needs. Some of the ways healthcare facilities can attain cultural competence through in-house training and education videos for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers.
