Multicultural Communication in Healthcare
Explain multicultural communication and its origins.
Multicultural communication is the interaction between people of different cultures. Multicultural communication focuses on the dynamics that make people from two different cultures communicate effectively. Traditionally, different cultures used to exist separately from each other. There was minimal intercultural communication. As travel and communication across the globe have become easier, the interaction between different cultures is inevitable.
Multicultural communication originated from interactions between people from different cultures, mainly through trade, immigration, war, and other geographical reasons. These factors made communication between people of different cultures unavoidable, thus, multicultural communication developed.
Compare and contrast culture, ethnicity, and acculturation.
Culture is the way of life, social behavior, norms, and beliefs found in human societies and the specific habits that people in these groups exhibit. Ethnicity, on the other hand, is the condition of belonging to a particular ethnic group, while acculturation is the continuous adoption of the elements of a foreign culture by classes, groups, or persons of another given ethnicity. The three concepts are concerned with groups of human beings in society. People who have the same culture and from the same ethnic group mainly speak the same language and reside within the same geographical location.
Explain how cultural and religious differences affect the health care professional and the issues that can arise in cross-cultural communications.
Culture, religion, and the behavior that members of a particular community hold significantly impact that community’s health and healthcare (Mannan, 2019). Culture and religious differences similarly affect the healthcare professional in several ways. The healthcare professional must be culturally sensitive when offering healthcare services within a different culture. They are also supposed to understand the culture and religious beliefs, therefore, respect them.
For instance, nurses should understand the culture and religious beliefs of the patients when developing care plans so that the care plans are culturally sensitive and respect cultural and religious differences. Some of the issues that can arise in cross-cultural communications in healthcare are miscommunications leading to errors and rejection based on cultural differences.
Discuss family culture and its effect on patient education.
Patient and family partnership in care has been seen to have good health outcomes for the patient, mainly due to the role of the family in encouraging adherence to care and engagement in patient education (Nickel et al., 2018). However, the family culture is different for different cultures. For instance, some family cultures have the family unit in the nuclear form while others extend to the community.
Other family cultures are based on strong hierarchical systems. In such family cultures, patient education may be compromised, especially when the father is the patient. The other family members may fear taking part in patient education. The healthcare professional should, however, understand the family culture of the patient and design patient education sessions that will be conducive to the family culture.
List some approaches the healthcare professional can use to address religious and cultural diversity.
Some of the approaches that the healthcare professional can use to address religious and cultural diversity include the use of cultural brokers, that is, the use of mediation, understanding personal beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and biases that may influence patient care provided to patients with different cultural and religious backgrounds, and socialization.
When a healthcare professional is expected to work within a different culture for a long time, they can make an effort to understand the culture and religious beliefs, thus understanding their needs and concerns and being culturally competent.
List the types of illiteracy.
Several types of illiteracy are important issues of consideration in healthcare. The types of illiteracy include emotional, functional, financial, moral, cultural, and informational illiteracy. These six types are important in healthcare since patients should have information that improves their quality of life. Other healthcare illiteracies include print health illiteracy, lack of reading and writing skills, oral health illiteracy, and conceptual illiteracy.
Discuss illiteracy as a disability.
Generally, illiteracy is not considered a disability. However, illiteracy can be considered a disability when illiteracy is caused by the inability to learn due to conditions such as mental impairment. Also, health illiteracy, especially functional illiteracy, can be considered a disability since the lack of essential information that the patient is supposed to have contributes to poor health outcomes and poor quality of life.
Give examples of some myths about illiteracy.
Some of the myths about illiteracy include the myth that illiterate people have lower intelligence compared to literate people. This myth stipulates that because a person is illiterate, they are not intelligent. This is, however, not true since some of the illiterate individuals are illiterate because they did not get a chance to learn. Another myth is that illiterate individuals are illiterate due to their ignorance. This myth also doesn’t have truth in it. Some people are illiterate following learning disabilities such as physical and mental impairment that restrict their learning.
Explain how to assess literacy skills and evaluate written material for readability.
Assessing literacy skills helps the healthcare professionals identify the patients’ literacy level and therefore understand how they will formulate patient education materials that the patient can easily understand. A healthcare professional can assess the literacy skills of a patient using yes-no questions for literacy skills, followed by a practical assessment to assess the level of literacy skills.
According to Chen and Meurers (2019), written materials are evaluated for readability by examining whether the material is written clearly and examining the complexity of the language, that is, vocabulary and the number of words, and whether there are infographics in the reading material.
Identify ways a health care professional may establish effective communication.
Effective communication is vital in healthcare. Effective communication is two-way between the patients and the healthcare providers. Ineffective communication in healthcare can significantly compromise care delivery, leading to poor health outcomes, errors in medication and treatment, as well as high healthcare costs (Ratna, 2019).
A healthcare professional can establish effective communication by using a language that both parties can understand, using the correct medium of communication for passing different communication, and minimizing miscommunication by ensuring clarity of information.
Suggest ways the health care professional can help a patient remember instructions.
A healthcare professional can help a patient remember instructions using several ways. The first one is by making instructions simple and clear for the patient. The second one is making the instructions understandable by accompanying them with examples from the patient’s environment and things with which the patient can relate. The healthcare provider can also help the patient set reminders for the instructions and also provide the patient with instruction manuals if the patient is literate.
References
Chen, X., & Meurers, D. (2019). Linking text readability and learner proficiency using linguistic complexity feature vector distance. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 32(4), 418-447. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2018.1527358
Mannan, H. (2019). Culture and Religion on Women’s Reproductive Healthcare in Rural Bangladesh. International Journal of Social, Political and Economic Research, 6(1), 38-53. https://doi.org/10.46291/IJOSPERvol6iss1pp38-53
Nickel, W. K., Weinberger, S. E., Guze, P. A., & Patient Partnership in Healthcare Committee of the American College of Physicians*. (2018). Principles for patient and family partnership in care: an American College of Physicians position paper. Annals of Internal Medicine, 169(11), 796-799. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-0018
Ratna, H. (2019). The importance of effective communication in healthcare practice. Harvard Public Health Review, 23, 1-6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48546767
Multicultural Communication in Healthcare Instructions
Write a 650-1300 word response to the following questions:
Explain multicultural communication and its origins.
Compare and contrast culture, ethnicity, and acculturation.
Explain how cultural and religious differences affect the health care professional and the issues that can arise in cross-cultural communications.
Discuss family culture and its effect on patient education.
List some approaches the health care professional can use to address religious and cultural diversity.
List the types of illiteracy.
Discuss illiteracy as a disability.
Give examples of some myths about illiteracy.
Explain how to assess literacy skills and evaluate written material for readability.
Identify ways a health care professional may establish effective communication.
Suggest ways the health care professional can help a patient remember instructions.
This assignment is to be submitted as a Microsoft Word document.