Culturally Competent Healthcare Workforce
Access to quality healthcare is a basic need for all human beings. Many countries have put in measures to ensure all people can access quality healthcare. One of the methods implemented in the healthcare sector is setting up satellite offices and community outreach centers to address the underserved healthcare needs of communities that cannot access services offered at the main facilities. Although setting up a community outreach center is essential, diverse, and culturally competent staff is equally important. More often than not, there exists a cultural gap between a patient and a healthcare provider. When policies are not implemented to bridge the cultural gaps, the gaps translate into poor health delivery as well as poor relations between patients and health service providers. As a manager of a community outreach health center, it is my role to ensure that the facility recruits and retains a diverse and culturally competent staff to ensure that the community receives quality health care services.
Developing a diverse workforce is vital in the healthcare sector. When a healthcare workforce does not integrate properly with a community, the quality of the healthcare services offered declines. According to Jongen (2018), health professionals play a key role in determining the nature of interactions and patient experiences when accessing healthcare; therefore, cultural and linguistic differences between healthcare providers and health service users can result in significant miscommunication. Developing a diverse workforce requires a strategic plan because it is not an easy task. When developing a diverse workforce, a health manager should implement policies that will retain a workforce.
The best place to post job advertisements is social media. At present, all social media platforms have an average of 3.5 billion users. Also, social media presents diverse users who interact with diverse people from across the globe. Healthcare providers on social media have been exposed to people with different cultures and can, therefore, work in a different setting. Also, another place to post the job adverts is within the community. Recruiting healthcare personnel from the community increases the chances of hiring a culturally diverse workforce. Staff from the community understands the needs of their community, and they are in a better position to tailor health services to suit the needs of the community. Also, healthcare providers from the community can train other workers in the health center on how to deal with a culturally diverse society.
Community engagement is vital in recruiting a healthcare workforce. Through engaging the community, healthcare management will hire culturally competent staff (Handtke et al., 2019). Therefore, experienced healthcare personnel and a community leader living within the target community are in the best position to conduct interviews and make a final decision. The healthcare personnel will assess the competency of the interviewee in the healthcare sector. On the other hand, the community leader will evaluate whether the interviewees are well-suited to work within a diverse community. In so doing, the satellite center will recruit competent workers who can work within a diverse society. The interview questions should include healthcare questions as well as practical, cultural diversity questions.
After attaining a culturally diverse workforce, the next step is to develop a retention plan. The satellite healthcare center is meant to serve the underserved community. Therefore, it is vital to maintain culturally diverse staff and improve health services. In line with Betancourt et al. (2016), continually changing healthcare workers reduces healthcare quality delivered because patient-doctor relationships keep getting interrupted by constant changes. The healthcare workers should get incentives such as medical insurances for their immediate dependants. The staff will be motivated when the health of their families is insured. Also, the healthcare center should organize corporate social responsibility functions where the workers interact with the community in a social setting. In so doing, a robust community-staff relationship will foster, leading to better services. Social interactions will enable the staff to learn about the different cultures and values in the community from a personal level. Besides, the team should get regular training on how to serve a diverse community. The staff will feel confident to deliver quality services when they are equipped with useful skills.
One of the challenges of serving a diverse community is language barriers (Jongen, 2018). Communication is one of the core elements of providing quality and effective health services. Thus, it is essential to create a mutual communication path in a diverse community to eliminate the language barrier. The most effective means of removing language barriers is using models, drawings, and devices to ambiguous points. In a diverse community, people often share a common language to communicate effectively. Thus, the medical staff can learn the primary language to supplement the models and drawings and eliminate communication barriers.
A diverse and culturally competent workforce is vital to the organization and the community. As mentioned earlier, a culturally diverse workforce ensures delivery of quality services. Thus, the community needs to learn the importance of supporting healthcare providers and helping them understand their cultures. When the responsibility of recruiting and retaining a culturally diverse workforce is left to the organization alone, the community does not understand their role in motivating the healthcare workforce. However, the community has an important role to play by integrating healthcare providers and teaching them their different cultures. Furthermore, the community should be tolerant and patient as the healthcare providers learn how to tailor healthcare services to suit the needs of each patient.
Developing a diverse and culturally competent workforce requires the influence of effective leadership. Some cultural barriers are a result of the organizational obstacles resulting from poor leadership (Handtke et al., 2019). Dealing with a diverse community is challenging because one has to be flexible and possess the ability to tailor services to suit the needs of individual patients. Therefore, healthcare practitioners working in a diverse community require the influence of effective leadership. An effective leader should advocate for incentives that motivate a culturally competent workforce. Also, the leader should organize training programs where the staff can attain skills on how to serve a diverse community. Without responsible leadership, a healthcare facility cannot retain a culturally competent workforce. Cultural competence is also essential for leaders in an organization. When a leader works in a culturally diverse environment, they attain skills of leading a group of a diverse staff. In such a situation, a leader learns how to solve problems on diversity.
The academic and research skills developed as a practitioner-scholar are essential in leading a healthcare facility. One gets equipped with the skills of researching a problem and planning a strategic solution. Research skills make one an effective leader because of the ability to filter information and apply appropriate solutions. For instance, when researching about diversity, one learns about the barriers to retaining a culturally diverse workforce. The research skills prepare me to lad a diverse workforce because I can implement policies that can maintain a diverse workforce as well as promote good relations between the workforce and the community.
In conclusion, a diverse and culturally competent workforce is essential in the healthcare sector. The most effective method of recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce is to include the community. The community also has a responsibility to maintain a diverse workforce by integrating the staff and teaching them about the various cultures. Most importantly, effective leadership can maintain a diverse workforce by forging good relations between the workforce and the community.
References
Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Carrillo, J. E., & Owusu Ananeh-Firempong, I. I. (2016). Defining cultural competence: a practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public health reports.
Handtke, O., Schilgen, B., & Mösko, M. (2019). Culturally competent healthcare–A scoping review of strategies implemented in healthcare organizations and a model of culturally competent healthcare provision. PloS one, 14(7), e0219971.
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC health services research, 18(1), 232.