Final Reflection

My first learning goal was to compare communication conventions among a diverse group of people. I think that I was able to accomplish this through different assignments this semester. I learned about how different cultures were willing to talk about themselves when speaking with a doctor. Some were much more timid and didn't want to speak much, while others didn't want too much eye contact to be made. Others however, were more then willing to talk and converse back and forth with the doctor and even bring up their own thoughts on healthcare, such as their cultural practices. Some even voiced their concerns with having their bodies cut open due to religious beliefs.

I also wanted to learn about my cultural norms. I think that I did a great job discovering that throughout this semester. I was able to identify with certain groups or individuals throughout the semester and I realized okay I have the same beliefs as this group, or I also value these certain things. I think they now that I have a better understanding of my own position, I can make sure I don't let that cloud my judgement and understanding of others' beliefs/values/norms.

The end goal was to be able to take what I learn from this class and apply it in real life. I have found that after taking this class I've been more open to working and dealing with people from different cultural backgrounds. Whether this was on in-class assignments that were group orientated or at work, I was able to not be so judgmental and open to other suggestions/opinions/views.

I think that this class taught me a lot. I'm glad I took it right before I graduated, I plan on working in a big city (Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis) upon graduation and I realize that there will be a lot of diversity involved wherever I end up working. I think that my new openness and respect for other cultures will be key for fitting into my new work environment. I also believe that my new and better understanding of my own beliefs will help me better understand others. I think this was one of my better classes I took throughout college and it had nothing to do with my finance major, and I'm grateful for that.

Book Club Summary

I had a great experience with these book discussions, I was able to gain insights and different viewpoints throughout the process of discussing with my roommates. The most recurrent theme I could find was the negative portrayal of doctors. I think that this may be a little unfair. What they were doing was questionable however it was not illegal at the time. I think they people need to take this into account when posting these discussions. However as time went I noticed a gradual change in attitude towards doctors after having to discuss a few laws that had taken effect since the time of this book.

A theme that did not change throughout the book was the view on informed consent. It was noticeable that everyone believed in informing people of the truth, not hiding information to benefit yourself or even the patient. I thought that this was the most interesting discovery, people want the truth instead of being told they would be okay. I expected some people to only want to hear what was necessary to hear, not the whole brutal truth.

I felt that this was a productive process and thought that everyone involved did a great job as well.

Diversity Resources

The first article goes into great detail on which healthcare interventions worked and didn't work relating to cultural competency. It not only reviewed and rated each intervention but they were able to draw conclusions on the actual effectiveness of healthcare interventions regarding cultural competency. The studies show that not only are employers telling their employees to be culturally competent, they are developing training methods to make their employees more culturally competent. This article does a great job in showing the benefits to developing these training methods. These don't only have to be done in healthcare however. I could see this working wonderful in my profession of accounting where we deal with people from different backgrounds all the time, and cultures vary widely on how they deal with money. We could use this training to better learn about other cultures beliefs and values. We are becoming a lot more international due to the internet and it is a lot more common to be working on the books of an international client. Cultural competency training could also help us communicate a lot more effectively with these clients. This source was found using Google Scholar, published using a .gov domain name, and the authors had a long list of credentials (PhD's MBA's etc.).

My second source does a great job on targeting the emerging practices. The most beneficial part of reading this article was how it pointed out that it's the company's leaders who are creating the systems and policies of the company. If you don't hire a diverse group of leaders (CFO, CMO, CEO, VP's of different operations) how can you ever expect your company to respect diverse cultures? It's crucial to have diverse leaders of the company help in setting up how the company will run. It's important to have cultural competency instilled in the companies systems/policies/values. I believe that this applies to literally any corporation, not just healthcare. Again this applies excellent in the accounting world, you need to have the higher ups instill culturally competency in the company. This source was found using Google Scholar as well, published using a .gov domain name, and the authors attended and or work at prestigious medical schools.










http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3137284/

http://www.azdhs.gov/bhs/pdf/culturalComp/cchc.pdf

CLAS

 I could not find an exact comparison to the National CLAS Standards due to these being written specifically for healthcare. However, after reading through the standards over and over I found that the biggest thing these standards are promoting is communication. Being a finance major, I decided to compare and contrast with The International Business Communication Standards.

The biggest takeaway from both of these standards is that they both intend to help each party clearly communicate, understand, and support what they are trying to get across. The end result should be a clear understanding on both sides, there should be no deception or manipulations.

CLAS's goal is to integrate all of their standards into the company, while IBCS is focused on communicating with individuals/companies from different cultures. CLAS wants the company to hire diverse individuals and have the resources to support them. IBCS wants to standardize the communications between diverse groups, hopefully leading to more business transactions between international companies.  However both focus on simplifying what is going on so that everything is easier to understand. CLAS and IBCS are also both concerned with checking your work for feedback to ensure you are keeping up to standard, not just standing still but making progress in your efforts.

The biggest similarity is the focus on communication, the biggest difference is how much more CLAS is focused on integrating internally while IBCS focuses on using these standards between two companies.

I think the difference is due to each set of standards focusing on different ideas. The CLAS can be integrated at any company not just healthcare facilities. And the IBCS can be used at any company when dealing with foreign countries. So, while these two standards aren't geared towards the same exact idea, they can (and should) be used at EVERY company.





http://www.ibcs-a.org/standards/130

Self-assessment of understanding of cultural diversity issues in healthcare

 

One of my personal learning goals this semester is to compare communication conventions among diverse groups of people, and to than take what I have learned and apply it to my place of work. For example, some groups may prefer just a short, brief e-mail that is right to the point. While other groups of people may value a more informal face to face conversation.

I would like to learn more about "dominant" culture and make sure to not always use that. I need to learn how to take into affect other people's cultures and values. 

The biggest learning goal that I have this semester is to learn about my personal culture norms. I believe that once I have a better sense of my own norms I can use that knowledge to better understand and communicate with people with different cultural norms.

The end goal for me is to take what I learn from this class and apply it to the real world, I believe a class like this is highly capable of transferring over to real world use.

To what extent do my beliefs, prejudices or biases influence my thinking in terms of providing service in my profession or work? 

I find that my bias towards people who don't act similar to me hinders my performance at the workplace at times. When serving others, if they don't act how I would act or respond in a similar way that I would I get upset more often than I should. I need to realize that people were raised differently and have different values than I do. Other times in the workplace I find that I may be prejudice upon seeing the way an individual appears, even though I haven't even met the person yet, potentially hindering any services provided in the future. I also sometimes let my beliefs over rule others' beliefs in the workplace, sometimes using my own beliefs to make decisions that someone with different beliefs may or may not make. This in turn could result in a different service provided, were a different choice made. 

I answered true while the correct answer was false for the question, "Minority and immigrant patients in the US who go to traditional healers and use traditional medicines generally avoid conventional Western treatments." I figured that if they had their own set ways already they wouldn't bother with any alternatives, much like I wouldn't. I use traditional western treatments and never seek any other form. However, I realize some people are more open minded than I might be which is an area for growth for myself.

I answered true while the correct answer was false for the question, "Some symbols—a positive nod of the head, a pointing finger, a “thumbs-up” sign—are universal and can help bridge the language gap." Again, proving how I may be bias against other ways, I figured people around the world used the same symbols as I would. 

I answered true while the correct answer was false for the question, "A really conscientious health provider can eliminate his or her own prejudices or negative assumptions about certain types of patients." I found this to be a great example of how I may overestimate my ability to remove bias/prejudice from a situation. I think this improvement comes overtime, since it is so ingrained in certain individuals who might not even realize it. 


Both of these excerpts provide examples in areas I can improve on. Throughout this class I hope to improve on myself as an individual to better serve other people in both my professional and personal life.