Cultural Competence Is Useful Skill In Medical Field

Every person has a unique background and is raised by their culture, their identity shaped by it. In society, people from all cultures interact with each other, but the differing backgrounds can potentially lead to miscommunication. Cultural competence is the ability to effectively understand and interact with people across cultures. It’s an incredibly crucial skill to have because of the nature of modern society, so cultural competence should be employed to minimize the chances of miscommunication and harm. 

Understandably, obtaining cultural competence isn’t something an individual can immediately do; it’s something that an individual must develop over time. There’s always something to be improved on. I took the quiz to gauge my own cultural competence. My results indicated that I had a fair understanding of cultural competence, but certainly not a full understanding. To be specific, I got a 24.67/25 after adjustments were made to the grades our class received. I wasn’t able to check which answers I got wrong, but I do remember times I wasn’t certain when answering. There were definitely one or two terms that stumped me when I was questioned about them, because I didn’t think about the intricacies of the definitions until then. I’ll use these results as the basis of how I can be more culturally competent. For instance, I can reread the definitions of terms related to cultural competence and think about examples where they could be applied to think critically about them. Reading case studies can also be used to see where cultural competency comes into play. Through these methods, I can definitely improve my level of cultural competency. I expect to know the deeper meanings and implications of these terms over the course of the semester.

What’s just as important as people being culturally competent in their everyday lives is people being culturally competent in their careers. In particular, cultural competence is one of the most important things that people should employ in the western medical system. Western medicine is one of many medical systems in the modern world and emphasizes the treatment of medical conditions through rigorous protocols enacted by professionals. These treatments are meant to be fast-acting in order to eliminate symptoms as quickly as possible. However, not everyone is able to respond to treatments done in western medicine effectively, because western medicine is innately a byproduct of western culture. To combat this problem, cultural competency should be used in the medical field because it results in the effective treatment of a patient. Marla Sutton details how to improve patient care by employing cultural competence in her article, “Cultural Competence.” In it, she provides a checklist of techniques that practitioners can use to self-assess their level of cultural competency. Sutton divides the techniques into three aspects: physical environment, communication styles, and values and attitudes (59). All the techniques primarily focus on two main concepts in anthropology that factor into the reliability of the western system of medicine: the employment of cultural relativism and the removal of ethnocentrism.

Cultural relativism is the concept of accepting a behavior within the context in which it is practiced. Western medicine, also known as allopathic medicine, is just one of many medical systems. No one medical system operates in a similar way to another; they all have differences in what they focus on and what treatments are performed to help a patient. For example, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a medical system with principles that have Taoist roots. Practitioners of TCM, view bodily systems as integrated parts of a whole. Problems of the body are seen as imbalances, so treatments deal with shifting the imbalances back into equilibrium (Tse). This is a stark contrast from viewing conditions of the body as individual, local instances that is seen in allopathic medicine (Wang). Just because the practices in TCM are different from those in allopathic medicine doesn’t mean they’re any less effective. If a patient wasn’t raised in western culture and wasn’t educated in western culture, how are they going to respond to treatment that has western roots and communicate with people who have been trained in a western system? Practitioners of allopathic medicine need to put this question in their minds and apply it to their work. Diversity should be something that can educate, not inhibit; the way treatment is administered should reflect that. This can be done by employing cultural relativism. Listening to what a patient has to say regarding how they want to be treated and having their own opinions weigh into what should be done can showcase an understanding of cultural differences. Practitioners of western medicine should also accept alternative treatments as valid and effective methods. They shouldn’t assume that western medicine is the only proper medical system, as other medical systems treat patients just as effectively, if not even more.

Ethnocentrism is the concept of judging another person or culture based on one’s own social position or culture. It’s a harmful value to hold in the medical field, because of a related issue regarding transparency. Transparency in this case refers to being open about one’s beliefs, behaviors, and actions. Practitioners of western medicine need to be transparent about their own values and attitudes to gain trust from their patients. A study led by USC showed that people who are threatened by the idea of being stereotyped in health care settings often experience adverse side effects and are more distrustful of their doctors. This is because they fear being judged for attributes they can’t control, such as age, gender, and race. In her TED Talk, Leana Wen states that she attempted to create a solution through the creation of whosmydoctor.com, a site where doctors can disclose information about themselves and their practices. Patients praised this website for allowing them to finally see who their doctors are, while the medical field viewed it with disdain because they disagreed with the concept of making their information public. But it’s this disdain that is the reason for why there’s a distrust of western practitioners; patients aren’t sure if they’ll be discriminated against, and so they aren’t able to receive an adequate amount of care. At the least, doctors need to not be ethnocentric; they must accept their patients’ beliefs and cultures. Then, they must show that they’re accepting by being transparent about their own values. That way, patients will be able to trust them easily.

Cultural competency is an incredibly useful skill and is one that’s necessary to have when working in the medical field. Patients’ cultural backgrounds need to be taken into account when discussing how to treat them, because culture is what shapes their identity and values. It’s important to be accepting of culture so that treatment can be effectively implemented. However, it only becomes effective if it’s put into practice. It’s one thing to believe in these values, but it’s a whole other thing to apply them. Sutton’s checklist is an incredibly useful tool for this. Not only can medical practitioners assess themselves, but patients can also use the checklist and concepts regarding cultural competency to gauge the level of cultural competence that a western medical practitioner has.

Works Cited

1. “Leana Wen: What your doctor won’t disclose.” Youtube, uploaded by TED, 13 Nov. 2014,
2. https://youtu.be/lVQ3KUTHDe0.
3. “Stereotypes In Health Care Make Patients Feel Worse, Study Finds.” Press Room. USC, 20 Oct.
4. 2015, https://pressroom.usc.edu/stereotypes-in-health-care-make-patients-feel-worse
5. study-finds/. Accessed 09 Sep. 2019. 
6. Sutton, Marla. “Cultural Competence.” Family Practice Management, vol. 7, no. 9, Oct. 2000,
7. pp. 58-60, https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2000/1000/p58.html.
8. Tse, Rose. “Holistic Concept of Chinese Medicine.” Shen-Nong, http://www.shen-
9. nong.com/eng/principles/holism.html.
10. Wang, Shirley S. “A Push to Back Traditional Chinese Medicine With More Data.” Wall Street
11. Journal, 3 Nov. 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-push-to-back-traditional-chinese-medicine-with-more-data-1415036616