An Analysis of Cultural Competence, Cultural Difference, and Communication Strategies in Medical Care
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: This research is directed at the repeated findings that minority populations suffer disproportionately from the burden of disease in our society, specifically in the development of disease, health outcomes, and access to care.Even as quality improves on specific measures, disparities often persist.A common reason cited for health inequalities is that the U.S. health care system, in its "one-size-fits-all" approach, is inadequate to meet the needs of minority patients.A proposed solution in biomedicine is cultural competence.This dissertation investigates how Anglo-American clinicians and Mexican immigrant patients communicate in a medical setting.Because of the popularity of cultural competence as a panacea to health inequalities, my research focused on the following questions: If the medical encounter provides the space for the intersection of cultural differences, how might patients and clinicians locate such differences, how are they talked about or negotiated between participants, and does there exist a set of strategies that clinicians can adopt to be "culturally competent?"Do cultural differences between patients and clinicians cause barriers to treatment?What other factors create 1 Minority groups also have higher rates of heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and infant mortality than Anglo Americans (Goldberg, et al. 2004).
Author: Marisa Abbe
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2292114859