Cultural competency to improve quality healthcare

Researchers believe that cultural competency training is important. There was a study done among 43 healthcare professionals. This article confirms training is necessary.

In recent years, scholars and policy makers have paid
considerable attention to the topic of cultural competency,
especially as it relates to the delivery of health
care in the United States. Scholarly research has focused
on the potential role of cultural competency training for
health care providers in reducing health care disparities.1-3
Researchers suggest that appropriate cultural competency
training programs should be implemented to educate
care providers about the role of cultural factors, such as
ethnomedical beliefs and use of folk medicine, health
beliefs and worldview, culturally prescribed values and
norms, gender-specific status and roles, and religion, in
influencing the outcome of patient-provider encounters.4-6
Although some scholars continue to debate the benefits
and limitations of cultural competency training in health
care, there is general agreement among researchers that
it improves patient-provider communication and that, in
the long term, it increases patient satisfaction and compliance.
7-9 In this article, we report findings from a pilot
study designed to assess the outcomes of a training program
aimed at improving knowledge and skills related to
the provision of cultural competent care among providers
and administrators.
There is an increasing level of academic interest in
examining the interrelatedness of health and culture,
especially as it relates to the delivery of health care.1-6 In
light of growing ethnic diversity and associated health
disparities in the United States, health policy makers and
providers have realized the benefits of cultural competency
training. Key stakeholders in the health care arena—
for example, providers, administrators, insurers, and policy
makers—consider cultural competency training to be
germane to providing quality health care to a diverse population
of patients.