Cultural Competence Training Program For African Immigrants

Cultural Competence Training Program For African Immigrants

Chidinma Ogundu

School of Nursing, Touro University DNP 761

Dr. Calaiselvy Elumalai Dr. Jessica Grimm April 14, 2021

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Cultural Competence Training Program For African Immigrants

Introduction

Cultural competence can be described as the ability of understanding, communicating, and interacting efficiently with people across cultures (Schouler-Ocak, et al., 2015). Cultural competence comprises of the process of one being aware of their own view of the world based on their cultural practices and traditions, as well as developing positive attitudes towards the difference in cultures of others. Cultural competence is an important aspect in healthcare because cultural practices directly impact health care practices (Venters et al., 2019). African immigrants often find themselves in situations of cultural dilemmas due to the differences in culture between their original areas of residence and their new ones (Price et al., 2015).

The main problem witnessed in the project site is the lack of cultural competence among health care providers regarding African immigrants. This problem negatively affects the health care experience of African immigrants. Due to their cultural incompetenceto the gap in cultural competence, the health care providers are not able to effectively deliver health services that address the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of the African immigrant patients. As a result, the African immigrant group is seen to have an overall health status score that is lower compared to other groups. Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Citation is required Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Need citation Comment by Jessica Grimm: Agree- try to go to WHO website and see if you can pull some resources/statistics from there.

This problem needs to be addressed because it violates the goal of the health care sector of providing fair access to health services for all groups of people (Allen, Jackson, & Knight, 2012). As the World Health Organization explains, the health care sector aims at ensuring that everyone has the opportunity tocan be as healthy as possible, including the African immigrants (World Health Organization, 2020). The lack of cultural competence among health care providers that leads to African immigrants having poor health experiences violates this goal. The solution put forth by this project is the development of a cultural training program for African Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Is the issue access to health care services or the gap in knowledge? Rephrase this sentence.

immigrants. This program is aimed at equipping health care providers with the right knowledge and set of skills they can use to effectively address the health concerns of African immigrants. The development of a cultural competence program is important because it will help in the removal of sociocultural factors that negatively impact the health experiences of African immigrants (Omenka, Watson, & Hendrie, 2020).
Background

By now it is common knowledge that theThe number of African immigrants entering and settling in the United States increases almost every year (Purnell & Fenkl, 2019). This is because African immigrants prefer moving to the United Sstates in search for better living conditions, better employment opportunities, and better health care services (Seck, 2015). However, African immigrants have been brought up in entirely different societies with completely different cultural beliefs and practices (Allen, Jackson, & Knight, 2012). Due to the cultural differences in their new residence, they often have a problem fitting in (Okudo & Ross, 2016). Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Capitalize S” Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: This statement does not flow right. Please rephrase

The African immigrant group has unique health care needs and most of these needs are related to their cultural practices (Purnell & Fenkl, 2019). Purnell and Fenkl (2019), report that health care providers are not devoted to finding methods of addressing these unique health care needs of African immigrants. Omenka, Watson, and Hendrie (2020), explain that the lack of cultural competence among health care providers is a crucial contributing factor to the poor health of African immigrants. Without cultural competence training, health care providers cannot effectively tackle the health care concerns of African immigrants (Okudo & Ross, 2016). Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Insert a comma after the citation Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Insert a comma after the citation

Problem Statement

The main problem faced at the project site is the lack of cultural competence training among health care providers, specifically in regard toregarding African immigrants. The facility is a primary care clinic located in Garland, Texas that attends to various groups of people and the African immigrants group is one of them. However, the African immigrant group is different in terms of their health care needs since most of their health care needs are related to their culture (Asare & Sharma, 2012). The staff haven’thave not received formal training on addressing the needs of this population, therefore they are not able to effectively deliver health services that address the cultural, social, and linguistic needs of the African immigrant group. This results in poor health conditions for African immigrants. Additionally, there are several resources available that are not being utilized and this project is designed to address these gaps. Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Try not to use the same words in the sentence more than once

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the failure of health care providers to administer effective health care services to African immigrants puts the group at an increased risk of getting sick (CDC, 2021). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that this has been evident especially during the COVID-19 period as many African immigrants have suffered from, and died of COVID-19 (CDC, 2021). The proposed solution is the development of a cultural competence training program for the health care providers. This program is aimed at enabling the health care providers to acquire the appropriate knowledge and techniques they can employ to provide quality health care services to African immigrants. Comment by Jessica Grimm: Please place the year only here.
PICOT Question

In African Immigrant groups (P), how can how can an effective cultural competence training program (I) be developed to improve the health care of African immigrants (O) in less than 4 weeks (T)? Comment by Elumalai, Calaiselvy – SRDH: Please use the PICOT format to develop your question. Element “C’ is missing in your question formatting.
Developing A Cultural Competence Training Program For African Immigrants Comment by Jessica Grimm: I see that you moved forward to the next section. We will not provide feedback on this until we are done with section 1. In the future, don’t move forward without permission. We want to guide you so you don’t lose time.

Language Barriers

The first element that should be included and addressed in an effective cultural competence training program African immigrant is the issue of language barriers. Language is the basic unit of communication (Betancourt & Green, 2010). Language hugely impacts communication and determines the outcome of the communication. Additionally, different cultures are usually associated with different languages. In other words, it is common to find that people belonging to the same culture use the same language for communication while people belonging to a different culture use a different language for communication. Therefore, it will be important to train health care providers on elements of the language used by African immigrants (Asare & Sharma, 2012). This will enable the health care providers to better understand the African immigrants when they express their health care needs and concerns (Omenka, Watson, & Hendrie, 2020). If the health care providers are conversant with the language, they will understand the needs and provide quality health care services to the African immigrants. All misunderstandings that may arise due to language barriers will have been eliminated (Wamwayi, Cope, & Murray, 2017).
Familiarization of Cultural Concepts

Another key element of a successful cultural competence training program for African immigrants is familiarizing the health care providers with the African immigrants’ cultural concepts that relate to their health beliefs and practices. It goes without saying that different

cultures hold different cultural concepts about health issues (Betancourt & Green, 2010). The health care providers should be trained on what the culture of African immigrants says about health issues. African immigrants are known to be people who hugely respect their culture (Clough, Lee, & Chae, 2013). Therefore, if certain health care aspects are in violation of their culture, a misunderstanding is bound to occur (Venters et al., 2019). Training the health care providers on the cultural concepts of health care will enable them to provide quality health care to African immigrants while respecting their cultural views on health (Allison et al., 2016). This will improve the willingness of the African immigrants to openly address their health care needs and concerns (Wamwayi, Cope, & Murray, 2017).
Training of Religious Issues

It is impossible to talk about culture without talking about religion. This is because culture impacts religion and religion impacts culture. It is reported that religion may influence some of the cultural practices while some cultural practices may influence practices of religion (Betancourt & Green, 2010). It is common to find people who belong to a certain culture practicing a common religion. Therefore, this means that different cultures have different religious opinions and practices (Kirmayer, 2012). This is the same case for African immigrants. The only difference is that Africans are notoriously religious (Seck, 2015). They include religious elements in almost all their activities, including health (Seck, 2015).

Therefore, the health care providers have to be trained on the religion and worldview of African immigrants for them to address the group’s health care challenges (Clough, Lee, & Chae, 2013). An example of a religious view of African immigrants on health is their view about illness . While most Western groups of people view sickness as the invasion of germs into the human body, African view illness as an impact of supernatural realm on human affairs (Clough,

Lee, & Chae, 2013). Therefore, without understanding this view, it would be practically impossible for a health care provider to reach an agreement with an African immigrant on a certain health issue. This is what makes the inclusion of training health care providers on religious issues a great factor.
Benefits and Expected Outcomes of the Cultural Competence Training Program for African Immigrants

An effective cultural competence training program for African immigrants should have specific and measurable outcomes (Delgado et al., 2013). One of the main goals of a cultural competence training program for African immigrants is the ability of health care providers to understand the African immigrant’s expression of health needs (Clough & Chae, 2013). After undergoing a cultural competence training program, health care providers will be able to understand the African immigrants when they express themselves and their needs (Wamwayi & Murray, 2019). Therefore, African immigrants will be able to receive appropriate and quality healthcare services without any cultural backlash (Allison et al., 2016). Additionally, health care providers will be able to acknowledge and accept their cultural practices in regard to health care and appreciate the differences in African immigrants’ cultural aspects of healthcare (Wamwayi & Murray, 2019).

The other outcome is that the overall health care status of African immigrants will be highly improved after the cultural competence training program (Clough & Chae, 2013). As seen from the discussion above, the cultural competence training program is aimed at making things better for the African immigrants. Therefore, through the elimination of language barriers, familiarizing health care providers with cultural concepts, and addressing the religious issues, the general health care experience of African immigrants will be improved.

Conclusion

Cultural competence training is a very essential element in the health care setting. However, little focus has been given to the development of cultural training programs that specifically target African immigrants. The program discussed above will be useful in reducing the health care disparities in patient population. Additionally, mutual respect and understanding between the African immigrant patients and the health care providers will be improved. Health care providers will also incorporate different ideas, perspectives, and strategies when making health decisions about African immigrants which will improve their health care experience. As seen above, there are certain key elements that should be included in the cultural competence training program for it to be successful. The cultural competence training program will be instrumental in improving the health care experience of African immigrants.

Information Toolkit About Some Of The Common Issues That African Immigrants Should Expect In Relation To Culture

Issue

Recommended Solution

Language barriers

Cultural Competence Training

Religious differences

Cultural Competence Training

Unacceptance by host society

Cultural Competence Training

Challenges in communal integration

Cultural Competence Training

Challenges of social integration

Cultural Competence Training

Pressures of adapting to the host environment

Cultural Competence Training

Acculturation

Cultural Competence Training

References

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