Cultural Competency

Health Professionals Home > Cultural Competency

• Cultural Responsiveness
• Ethnomedicine
• Female Migrant Workers' Health
• Homeless Women's Health
• Immigrant Women's Health
• Transcultural Health and Nursing

Cultural competency in health refers to being aware of cultural differences among diverse racial, ethnic, and other minority groups, respecting those differences, and taking steps to apply that knowledge to professional practice. Our country is an increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse nation, and disparities in health care access, health outcomes, and health status are major issues.

According to the National Center for Cultural Competence:

Related Information Health Information for Minority Women

• The perception of illness and disease and their causes varies by culture.
• Diverse belief systems exist related to health, healing and wellness.
• Culture influences help-seeking behaviors and attitudes toward healthcare providers.
• Individual preferences affect traditional and non-traditional approaches to health care.
• Patients must overcome personal experiences of biases within health care systems.
• Healthcare providers from culturally and linguistically diverse groups are under-represented in the current service delivery system.

Better communication with patients, families, and groups from diverse cultures, improved health outcomes, and greater patient satisfaction with care all are benefits derived from being a cultural competent healthcare provider. Some of the U.S. Federal Government offices and agencies that focus on health disparities affecting women include:

• The Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health
• The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health
• The National Institutes of Health's Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)
• The Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau

Cultural Responsiveness

Publications

1. Achieving Cultural Competence: A Guidebook for Providers of Services to Older Americans and Their Families
2. Cultural Competence Works
3. National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care
4. Quick Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults
5. Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH)
6. Cultural Competence Assesment Tools (Copyright © CCHP)
7. Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Assessment - CCHPA (Copyright © NCCC)
8. Cultural Competency in Medicine (Copyright © AMSA)
9. Cultural Competence Practice and Training: Overview (Copyright © DiversityRx)
10. Curriculum in Ethnogeriatrics (Copyright © Stanford University) 
11. Ethnic Health Advocacy
12. Ethnogeriatrics (Copyright © Fred Kobylarz MD)
13. National Center for Cultural Competence Publications
14. The Providers Guide to Quality and Culture (Copyright © Management Sciences for Health)
15. Working with Linguistically Diverse Populations (Copyright © NCCC)
16. Guidelines for Providing Health Care Services through an Interpreter (Copyright © CCHCP)

Web sites

1. The Center for Linguistic and Cultural Competency in Health Care
2. CultureMed (Copyright © SUNY Institute of Technology)
3. DiversityRx
4. Minority Health (Copyright © The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
5. Think Cultural Health

Organizations

1. Office of Minority Health & Health Disparities, CDC, HHS
2. Office of Minority Health, HRSA, HHS
3.  U.S. Department of Human and Health Services, Indian Health Service
4. American Medical Student Association
5. Association of Clinicians to the Underserved
6. Intercultural Cancer Council
7. National Asian Women's Health Organization (NAWHO)
8. National Center for Cultural Competence
9. National Council on Interpreting in Health Care
10. National Rural Health Association
11. Stanford Geriatric Education Center
12. The Access Project
13. The Center for Cross-Cultural Health
14. The Cross Cultural Health Care Program

Ethnomedicine

Publications

1. Herb-Drug Interactions (Copyright © University of Washington)
2. The Value of Plants Used in Traditional Medicine for Drug Discovery
3. Traditional Medicine (Copyright © WHO)

Web sites

1. Ethnobotany (Copyright © Access Excellence @ The National Health Museum)
2. Ethnomed (Copyright © University of Washington)
3. HerbMed (Copyright © Alternative Medicine Foundation)
4. Native American Ethnobotany (Copyright © University of Michigan)
5. Tracer Bullets: Medicinal Plants
6. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
7. Institute for EthnoMedicine

Organizations

1. American Anthropology Association
2. American Botanical Council

Female Migrant Workers' Health

Publications

1. Health Workers' Group Training Manual (Copyright © USMBHA)
2. Immunization for Adults (Copyright © Migrant Clinician)
3. Migrant Health (Copyright © RAC)
4. The Reproductive Health of Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Women (Copyright © NLIRH)
5. Guidelines for Providing Health Care Services through an Interpreter (Copyright © CCHCP)

Organizations

1. National Center for Farmworker Health
2. Migrant Clinicians Network
3. Migrant Health Promotion
4. Migration Information Source
5. National Council of La Raza
6. Rural Assistance Center

Homeless Women’s Health

Publications

1. Homeless
2. Homeless and Elderly: Understanding the Special Health Care Needs Of Elderly Persons Who Are Homeless
3. Addressing Cultural and Linguistic Competence in the HCH Setting: A Brief Guide (Copyright © NHCHC)
4. Health Care for the Homeless (Copyright © AMSA)

Organizations

1. Bureau of Primary Health Care, HRSA
2. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
3. National Center on Family Homelessness
4. National Health Care for the Homeless Council

Immigrant Women's Health

Publications

1. Women's Health USA 2005: Immigrant Health
2. Immigrant Healthcare Coverage and Access (Copyright © KFF)
3. Immigrants and Health Coverage: A Primer (Copyright © NCLR)

Organizations

1. HHS, Office of Global Health Affairs
2. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
3. Center for Immigrant Health (Copyright © NYU)
4. Migrant Health Promotion
5. The Access Project

Transcultural Health and Nursing

Publications

1. Minorities in Medicine: An Ethnic and Cultural Challenge for Physician Training, An Update
2. Basic Concepts of Transcultural Nursing (Copyright © Culturediversity.org)
3. Transcultural Nursing Resources

Organizations

1. Culturaldiversity.org
2. Select Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages
3. Transcultural Nursing Society
4. U.S. - Mexico Border Health Association

= Indicates Federal Resources

Current as of November 2007