The diversity in terms of religion often brings challenges for healthcare providers, including dentists. Yes, they do not understand how to maintain cultural competence while delivering the best services.
Cultural competence could be defined as the capability of the hospitals and clinics to assure high-quality care that meets the social, cultural, as well as the religious beliefs of a patient. Well, to know more regarding this particular topic, please check out the rest of the discussion right now.
What is the Consequence of Cultural Competence Deficiency?
No one will deny that in a dental emergency, professionalism is paramount. This applies to all types of healthcare crises actually. However, without cultural competence, patients do face some untoward consequences. Studies have shown that Americans, Africans, Asians, Muslims, and Latinos receive substandard treatments due to their race or ethnicity.
The authorities of the TJC (The Joint Commission) asks healthcare providers to be responsible for preserving patient rights, which include accommodation for religious, cultural, and spiritual values. They must care for the patients as a whole, or in other words, their body, mind, and soul. They must know how to respond to the questions of the patients’ families without being rude. Such situations put their expertise regarding cultural competence to test.
The modern-day hospitals are looking out for or developing strategies to meet the religious needs of the patients in a seamless manner. One of the major reasons behind doing is the federal government, which promote institutional openness to population diversity. The sooner racial and ethnic health disparities can be eliminated, the better.
Culturally Competent Care
Patient behaviors, values, and beliefs are moulded by factors like ethnicity, language, gender, race, religion, nationality, mental ability, occupation, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. The healthcare providers need to integrate cultural intelligence when offering treatments. Strategies that can make a difference are as follows:
- Motivating the family members of the patient to take part in the healthcare decisions.
- Providing cultural awareness programmes.
- Incorporating culturally significant values in health promotion.
- Creating an environment that accepts traditional healers.
- Employing minority staff and interpreters.
Healthcare and Religion
Why is religion even a part of healthcare? Well, religion is something a major segment of the patients seeking care have. Although most of the general physicians, dentists, surgeons, etc. did not take into account religious beliefs, at present, they need to do so while conducting physical exams or recommending treatments.
Religion is known for contributing to the decisions regarding diet, medications that contain animal products, preferred gender, etc. Just imagine asking a vegan to eat meat because his or her body needs protein. Many people adhere to a strict prayer time that can interfere with the treatment.
To summarise, healthcare providers must respect the patients’ religion and let them turn to faith when anxious. At times, facts do not manage to calm the mind.
The experts running social media training for Catholic businesses said religion impacts the patient decisions to a great extent. Procuring a substantial amount of knowledge about the varied beliefs will help you fabricate a culturally sensitive ambiance, and drive more traffic than ever.