In a healthcare setting, cultural competence is a comprehensive system of clinical practices, standards of care, management policies, and institutional philosophy that seeks to optimize quality of care by integrating and being responsive to the cultural factors that influence the attitudes and behavior of every patient.

• What is cultural about gender?
  The defining of roles and norms, including dress, work, behavior, parenting expectations, what is off limits or out-of-bounds, and consequences for those who defy those norms and roles 

Culturally competent care requires providers to be proficient in meeting patients’ needs within and across cultural lines.  A provider’s role in the healthcare system is to be a bridge between the system and the patient.  In order to be a bridge, a provider needs to know themselves. 

The first step to cultural competence is knowing yourself.

• You need to know: who are you culturally; the ways in which you are like your colleagues and clients; the ways in which you are different; and how who you are has an impact on your perception of others
• Be aware of your areas of personal privilege (e.g. gender, skin color, native language, economic advantage, position, education…)

The purpose of understanding cultural differences is not to simply overgeneralize about who our clients are.  There is great diversity within “groups”.  The purpose is for us to provide more effective care by understanding our clients’ beliefs, what they have done, are doing, are likely to do, and why. 

The second step to cultural competence is learning about others.

• You need to know as much as you can about the various cultures of your clients
• Educate yourself about the lives of those different from yourself and the impact of an individual’s gender, race or ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, and country of origin on their daily life and interactions with others
• Learn about the history of why and when different populations came to the U.S., about discrimination and the effects of systematic oppression based on race, language, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation, particularly in relation to medical care

See also: Tips for Culturally Competent Care