Among the many values that health professionals need to apply in their line of work is being multicultural. What this value means to me is that every patient that comes through the door of any health care facility is entitled to receiving equal treatment in terms of service delivery. As a result, no patient should feel like they were served differently in any health care facility just because they are of different skin color or speak a different language from the predominant languages (Tan & Li, 2016). In doing so, it is also important to understand the cultures of the various patients with the aim of finding ways to offer them the best treatment.
I hope to apply being multicultural in my future career as a healthcare professional in different ways. First, I hope to receive training on how to handle the different patient cultures in a manner that will not let them feel less human. Secondly, I will spearhead policies that will reduce linguistic and administrative barriers to patients of various cultures such as those that will promote equity in patients’ service delivery. Thirdly, practicing cultural competency will also demand of me to build trust with my patients so that they can be free to share which language they would rather use in their communication with me during patient-nurse-doctor sessions (Jimenez, 2016). I will also strive to provide a warm environment that will help them open up and speak about any cultural issues that may help in providing them with the best health care.
Thus, being trained on how deal with multicultural patients, advocating for the right policies, building trust, and providing a warm environment are methods that I hope to utilize to exercise multiculturalism in my future career.
References
Jimenez, S. (2016). 5 ways nurses can improve cultural competency. Nurse.com. Retrieved from https://www.nurse.com/blog/2016/04/14/5-ways-nurses-can-improve-cultural- competency/#Lightbox[gallery46410]/0
Tan, N., & Li, S. (2016). Multiculturalism in Healthcare: A review of current research into diversity found in the healthcare professional population and the patient population. International Journal of Medical Students, 4(3), pp. 112-119