respecting client and staff diversity healthcare core curriculum

Respecting Client and Staff Diversity

Healthcare Core Curriculum

This module provides a framework for dealing with diverse clients/individuals and staff.

Belief systems, cultural practices, respect and sensitivity to cultural issues, gender issues and sexuality issues are included.

Awareness and use of effective strategies to appropriately deal with client and staff diversity are emphasized.

Respecting Client & Staff DiversityModule Description

This module consists of 5 competencies for students to master.

These competencies are listed on the following slide and will be addressed throughout the remainder of the power point.

Each competency is taught through a series of units which include suggested assignments for students to complete to learn the competency. Feel free to use the assignments or develop your own.

Module Outline and Instructor Resources

Find these learning activities and resources on the website or create your own.

The Course Outline also has documents that the instructor can use in teaching the lesson.

These competencies are listed on the following slide and will then be addressed throughout the remainder of the Power Point.

Module Outline and Instructor Resources

Describe one’s personal belief system.

1. Explain the belief systems and practices of diverse cultures.

2. Explore personal responsibility as a healthcare employee to treat each person as an individual (customer service).

3. Discuss the appropriate workplace expectations to interact with team members and care for clients/individuals from diverse cultures, genders, age groups and/or sexual orientations.

4. Using a problem solving process applied to healthcare situations, describe how healthcare employees can respect client and staff diversity.

Module Competencies

Competency 3

6

Explore personal responsibility as a healthcare employee to treat each person as an individual (customer service).

• Discuss cultural stereotyping.• Identify personal cultural prejudices.• Identify cultural interactions with team members and clients.

Competency 3

Recommended Content

The ancients first formed cultural stereotypes when they came upon a new race or tribe.

They quickly had to decide if the people were safe to encounter. Since there wasn’t much

time to determine if the group was safe or not, judgments where made towards the race or

tribe as a whole, and not on an individual basis.

These assumptions, or stereotypes, were then passed down from generation to generation

and still impact our lives today. Books and films have supported the aspect of cultural

stereotype.

For example, they may depict the black man as a great basketball player or the black woman

who is a servant for a white woman.

Stereotyping and Prejudices

Eagle Feather Research Institute

Cultural blind spot syndrome is a belief that “just because the client looks and behaves much the way you do, you assume that there are no cultural differences or potential barriers to care.”

For example, white American nurses may assume that white American patients believe in the same cultural values as they do. This assumption is false.

White Americans come from many different ethno-cultural backgrounds—Irish, Russian, German, Jewish, and English to name but a few. In addition, white nurses and patients may also belong to different subcultures that have different values.


Juliar, K. (2003).

Through the discussion of this portion of the module, assumptions of stereotyping will be discussed with the students. This is an area in which many students will have personal experience to share. The discussion can be lively and needs to be controlled with respect and sensitivity.


Communication barriers can lead to a great number of misunderstandings. In the module entitled “Communications in Health Care Settings”, communication is taught at length.

However, as communication relates to stereotyping and prejudices, let’s look at just two barriers to communication.

1. Foreign languages and dialects

2. Street talk, slang and idioms.


Foreign Languages and Dialects

Some facts:• Over 6,000 different languages and dialects are spoken today.• The number of people in America who speak a language other than English is

growing.• 10% of the population speak more than just English. • The English language has more than 25,000 different words. • The most widely spoken language is Mandarin Chinese.


Juliar, K. (2003).

Definitions of Dialect

“A distinctive way a language is spoken or written in a given locality or by a group of individuals.”

“A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists.”

“The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon”.


Juliar, K. (2003).

Street Talk, Slang, Idioms and Medical Terminology

Street talk, slang, and idioms are expressions that may be used by people that can sometimes create a language barrier.

For example, if you are from a white middle class family, you may not understand that when an African-American person uses the word “hood” they are referring to their neighborhood or that the “Amen Corner” refers to the corner in the church where the older women of the church sit.


Juliar, K. (2003).

Recommended Content

The curriculum breaks down cultural interactions with team members into four parts.

1. Conversations – verbal and non-verbal

2. Thoughts regarding interactions

3. Feelings evoked by the interactions

4. Physical interactions – touch related to the physical care of a client

Tips on presenting the material

These four areas of interaction with team members can provide for some interesting stories from the students.

Identify cultural interactions with team members and clients

Recommended Learning Activities

Competency 3: Personal Responsibility and Customer Service

Assignment Resources Notes

RCS Competency 3 Cultural Prejudice Assignment on website Reflection on cultural prejudice and how it feels.

RCS Competency 3 Unique Potato Exercise

Assignment on websiteBring a bag of potatoes

Students choose a potato and describe the uniqueness of it.

RCS Competency 3 Website – Keirsey Temperament Sorter II

The Keirsey Inventory Sorter: This is a 70 question personality inventory. Students reflect on how to communicate with others according to their results.

http://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx




Competency 4

Discuss the appropriate workplace expectations to interact with team members and care for clients/individuals from diverse cultures, genders, age groups and/or sexual orientations.

• Discuss workplace expectations for team members and clients of divers cultures, genders, ages and sexual orientations.

Competency 4

Recommended Content

This competency addresses respect in the workplace, from respect with team members to respect with patients/clients of diversity.

Diversity as defined by how the patient/client differs from the healthcare provider. Different age, skin color, class, religion, education level, language, sexuality, etc. can be differing factors.

The curriculum also addresses respectful communication with team members and patients/clients from various cultures.

Workplace Expectations

Respectful communication includes, but not limited to:

• Verbal and nonverbal communication• Written communication• Age appropriate and gender appropriate communication• Requesting clarification, if needed• Validating the feelings of a patient/client

Workplace Expectations


Competency 4: Workplace Expectations

RCS Competency 4 Transcultural Interaction Diary

Assignment on website Students journal after each encounter with someone who is culturally diverse and reflect on the positive and the negative in the encounter.

RCS Competency 4 5 Scenario Cultural Diversity Ethics

Assignment on website Student reflects on a child having marks from “coining” on their skin and whether to report it.

Competency 5

Using a problem solving process, applied to healthcare situations, describe how healthcare employees can respect client and staff diversity.• Discuss the problem solving process as applied to respecting client and staff

diversity.

Competency 5

Recommended Content

The problem solving process can be broken down into the following 5 steps:

1. Identify the problem

2. Gather information

3. Create alternative solutions

4. Select and act on solution

5. Evaluate and revise as needed

Problem Solving as Applied to Diverse Cultures


Competency 5: Problem Solving

Assignment Resources Notes

RCS Competency 2, 3, 4, 5. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Learning Activity

Book by: Fadiman, Anne (1997)

Students read the book “The Spirit Catches you and you fall down” and answer questions regarding the Hmong people and the cultural problems they had with the healthcare system and doctors in the United States

RCS Competency 5 Scenario Diversity Case Study

Assignment on website An interesting case study of a Muslim woman picking up a Prescription from a pharmacy.

Berman, A., Snyder, S.J., Kozier, B., and Erb, G. (2008).Culture and heritage. In A. Berman, S.J. Snyder, B. Kozier, and G. Erb (Eds.). Kozier and Erb’s Fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process, and practice (8th ed.) (pp. 311-329). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Bosenberg. M.(2011, March 2). The Population Baby Boom of 1946-1964 in the United States Retrieved from http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/babyboom.htm

Culture Diversity Organization. (1997-2008).Transcultural nursing: Basic concepts and case studies. Retrieved from http://www.culturediversity.org/index.html

Eagle Feather Research Institute http://eaglefeather.org/pages/about.php

References

Freire,P. (n.d.). The Politics of Education. Retrieved from http://renew.education.ucsb.edu/downloads/overheads_handouts/class.pdf

Juliar, K. (2003). Minnesota Healthcare Core Curriculum (2nd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Publishers

Kane, S. (n.d.). Generation Y. Retrieved from http://legalcareers.about.com/od/practicetips/a/GenerationY.htm

Kelly, R.T. (2006). Cultural and ethnic considerations. In B.L. Christensen and E. O. Kockrow (Eds.). Foundations and adult health nursing (5th ed.) (pp. 124-148). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier, Mosby

References

Nemours Foundation. (1995-2011). Culture shock. Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/emotions/culture_shock.html#

New World Encyclopedia. (2007). Culture. Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Culture

Potter, P.A. and Perry, A.G. (2009). Culture and ethnicity. In P.A. Potter and A.G. Perry (Eds.). Fundamentals of nursing (7th ed.) (pp. 106-120). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier, Mosby

Thielfoldt, D. and Scheef, D. (2004, August). Generation X and the millennial: What you need to know about mentoring the new generations. Retrieved from http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt08044.html

References

Author: Dede Carr, BS, CDA, LDA; Pat Reinhart, RN

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respecting client and staff diversity healthcare core curriculum

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