CULTURAL AWARENESS EDUCATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
The Cultural Awareness Education for Healthcare Professionals is composed of two six hour educations sessions:
-
Session One: Introduction to Cultural Awareness
- Session Two: Introduction to Ethics, Access, Disparity, and Advocacy
Session one is designed to provide registered nurses, and other healthcare professionals, with tools for working within a diverse
environment. Important principles that serve as the underpinnings for cultural awareness are sensitivity, tolerance, openness and
respect. Session two is designed to assist the registered nurse, and other healthcare professionals, to develop skills in advocacy
both for patients at the bedside as well as in the broader society. Ethical principles are very important in both patient decisions as
well as staff relationships and nurses often confront disparities in access to healthcare and other socio-economic inequities as
they carry out their role as caregiver and advocate. Session two assists the registered nurse to develop competencies and a greater
understanding of each of these components to the nurse as he or she carries out their role in various settings.
Objectives for Session One – At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:
1.
Understand that nurse-patient encounters include the interaction three distinct cultural systems
2.
Improve access to care by providing culturally appropriate services to which nurses use their knowledge of cultural
awareness to develop and implement culturally appropriate and responsive care.
3.
Apply principles of cultural competency in order to minimize tensions, misunderstandings, and frustrations that can
arise among diverse multicultural groups of nurses working in the same healthcare environment.
4.
Provide a broad range of practical information and guidance which Registered Nurses, as well as other clinical staff
can use to improve the quality of culturally appropriate and responsive patient care.
5.
Address key issues in multicultural communications and patient care, including strategies for using translators
effectively to improve patient outcomes in the hospital setting.
6.
Provide specific examples of health-related cultural benefits and orientations by members of specific ethnic groups.
Objectives for Session Two – At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to:
1.
Identify assumptions about class, race, gender, and age that complicate health provision.
2.
Relate current disparities in health and healthcare to the historic role of discrimination and inequality within the United States.
3.
Apply self awareness of the cultural, social, and economic aspects of society to health care provision and workplace relationships.
4.
Utilize an understanding of advocacy, ethics, and ethical decision-making to facilitate the registered nurse in the application of these principles in nursing practice.
6.
Provide specific examples of health-related cultural benefits and orientations by members of specific ethnic groups.
