Provider-Perspective Resource
Before you enter a patient’s room, it is important to realize that you have already started to form a mental image of the individual based on age, name, cultural or ethnic identity, and illness. This mental image may derive from previous experiences, broad generalizations, or even stereotypes (fixed or general patterns that often define an individual or group based on prejudice or uncritical judgment). Your image of the patient is also heavily influenced, consciously or sub-consciously, by your own beliefs about health and illness: your personal and medical cultural foundation.
In order to understand a patient, you must make efforts to learn about the individual’s beliefs and practices, which will be both intensely personal and influenced by his or her culture. Members of cultural groups distinct from the dominant culture may also have varying degrees of acculturation that may modify their culturally-based beliefs.
Additionally, awareness of your own beliefs and of the existence of opinions based on stereotypes is critical if you wish to create a successful patient encounter. You can learn to recognize the extent to which you hold views based on stereotypes; and you will need to do so if you wish to reduce or remove these stereotypes. It is not necessary to disregard your own beliefs, but you do need to be willing to consider the beliefs of your patients and their families as you interact in the clinical setting. Differences in health beliefs do not have to cause insurmountable barriers if you maintain flexibility, remain sensitive to nuance in communication, and use negotiation to tailor the evaluation and management plan.
Self-assessment of your knowledge of different cultures, especially the “Culture of Medicine,” is a necessity. Like most things in medicine, there is no end point to learning in cultural competency; continuous re-evaluation of your knowledge is important.
For a series of questions and exercises to aid in self reflection, visit Self-Reflection Toolbox.