Developmental Process In Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is the capacity of an organization to successfully engage, collaborate, and create meaningful relationships with people of different cultural backgrounds. Cultural background encompasses aspects such as: beliefs, values, actions, thoughts, and behaviors of people from various social groups. Cultural competence is a lifelong process of increasing self-awareness, social skills, and behaviors in regards to diversity. The aspect of cultural competence should not be considered a aspect of tolerance, rather recognizing and respecting culture through words and actions. In the book, “The Practical Skeptic”, by Lisa J. McIntyre, many of the readings make it evident that having cultural competency is absolutely necessary in socialization.
In the article, “Anybody’s Son Will Do,” by Gwynne Dyer he writes about the journey of basic training and the Marine Corps. A key concept he discusses is that “If culture is learned, it also can be unlearned” (Dyer 152). Here Dyer sums up the definition of a concept known as resocialization. Dyer goes on in this article to show this process of resocialization by explaining how young-adult volunteers are stripped of everything they know, only to relearn a new culture and lifestyle they eventually grow accustomed to. The process of converting civilians who have volunteered into a solider of the Marine Corps is one meant to excite and exhaust. According to Dyer, their basic training prepared them efficiently for the new lifestyle they’re about to endure. Dyer explains, “Basic training involves teaching a brief but intense period of indoctrination whose purpose is not really to teach recruits basic military skills, but rather to change their values and their loyalties” (Dyer 156). Dyer argues the military intentionally isolates soldiers from contacting home too often with the sole purpose to create a brotherhood through basic training that involves psychological manipulation in order to change the loyalties and values of the soldiers. This reading by Dyer also considers most armies prefer young recruits to older ones as young recruits are more likely to obtain the qualities of naivety and enthusiasm. Most of them want the closely structured environment and discipline which armed forces provide. Through basic training, the soldiers are able to do things which they would not have dreamt of. Therefore, the most important kind of cultural competence that must be acquired by the soldiers studied by Gwynne Dyer includes enthusiasm and naivety. These qualities are required by armies to transform ordinary civilians into men who are ready to kill and die in the battlefield.
In the article, “How Women Reshape the Prison Guard Role” by Lynn Zimmer, it discusses how women use job performance techniques that are innovative to work in male prisons as guards. This article suggests that the female guards do the job in a different way than from male guards. The reason behind this is because the women guards face discriminatory and structural obstacles on the work. Due to females having a different level of respect in prisons majority of them bring to work skills, abilities and experiences that are vastly different and unique from male guards due to their different experience. Although the women guards are assessed on the same grounds of how well the skills they obtain compare to male guards. This is one of the reasons why they may fail to get positive performance assessments in the jobs that men traditionally hold. This cultural competence is common among the male guards in this article and forms the basis of gender bias (Zimmer, 2013). Zimmer argues in this article that expecting women to do jobs in a similar way to men is gender unfairness and that there are many ways of performing jobs. It is therefore, crucial form of cultural competence that must be acquired by the prison guards studied by Zimmer is judging women on whether their approach works effectively the same way as men.
In the article “Not Just Bodies: Strategies for Desexualizing the Physical Examination of Patients” by Patti A. Giuffre and Christine L. Williams, experts in the health care profession use specific strategies during a physical examination to control their own feelings, and their patients’ actions to avoid sexual transgression allegations. Therefore, the most important form of cultural competence that must be acquired by the health care practitioners studied by Giuffre and Williams is the use of various strategies to control their feelings (Giuffre & Williams, 2013). The two authors of this reading conducted several interviews with nurses and physicians to look into the ways in how practitioners in health care career desexualize physical exams. The authors found out there to be three general and common desexualizing strategies used by both female and male health care practitioners. According to this article, these strategies are used regardless of the patients’ characteristics. The three common strategies used were; using medical terms and avoiding familiar slang terms that would be used in an informal conversation, meeting patients clothed before examination, and engaging in nonsexual joking and conversation. The two authors assert that desexualizing physical examination is important and unique to each patient. Cultural competence in relation to health care services means providers effectively deliver care that meets the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of all patients. A culturally competent health care system can help improve health outcomes and quality of care, and can contribute to the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities.
In conclusion, cultural competence entails developmental process that advances with time. Both organizations and individuals are at given levels of knowledge, skills and awareness along the scale of cultural competence. Practicing cultural competence means understanding the core needs of your target audience and designing services and materials to meet those needs strategically, to ensure all voices are heard and reflected.
