Course Focus
Welcome to Cross Cultural Helath Care - Case Studies. This interactive, engaging learning module includes core concepts of, and four cross cultural health care case studies, each accompanied by a lecture and learning activities. The purpose of these case studies is to familiarize the learner with the many issues that may arise while working in a pediatric setting with people from different cultures. The first lesson provides core concepts of cultural competence including health beliefs, social factors and self-awareness of the health care provider that are central to providing culturally competent care. Each case study involves a family from a different culture and focuses on more specific issues of working with culturally diverse families.
Our main focus, however, is not on teaching about specific cultures. Rather, we hope to convey to the learner the types of beliefs or practices that can differ from culture to culture. General background information on most cultures is available on the Internet, but this information does not tell the provider what an individual family believes, given its degree of acculturation and its interpretation or acceptance of cultural norms. Ultimately, the healthcare provider must learn from an individual patient or family about the beliefs they hold and how these impact the provision of healthcare.Course Goals
Our goal is to expose the learner to the potential differences between cultures, so that when a provider enters an encounter with a patient and family he or she is sensitive to differences that may exist, has the skills to explore these with the patient in order to learn more about the patients’ beliefs and customs, and is able to join with the patient to find a mutually acceptable, and beneficial treatment plan.While most of these cases involve work with individual patients/families, it is essential to understand that “cultural competence” does not simply involve an individual health care provider’s skill in working with patients from other cultures. Cultural competence also includes the ability of programs and organizations to meet the needs of culturally diverse patients. This often requires fundamental changes in the way that an organization or program delivers care.
Course Structure
This learning module is centered on case stories that illustrate and provide an opportunity to apply the concepts presented in each lesson. You can navigate between the components of the lesson by clicking the links in the bar on the left of the lesson pages. The components are listed in the preferred order of use, but you will be able to go into the components in any order and go into and out of the various components, as you desire. The case story is an introduction to the content presented in the lesson. As you work through the lesson think about how it applies to your own work situation. The information in the About This Topic section gives you an overview of the lesson. Concepts that are underlined are further explained if you need this information. We suggest that you listen to and watch the lecture before you proceed to the learning activities where you will have the opportunity to apply the information. You can take the quiz after you have completed the rest of the components.
We have included links to the key written resources used for this lesson and links to some websites that we have found to be useful that you may use if you would like additional information on this topic.Prerequisite
Successful completion of the first lesson, Core Concepts in Cultural Competence is a prerequisite for accessing the following case stories. You can then complete one or all of the case stories.