Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Cultural Competence Vision
Joan U. Bretschneider, PhD, RN, Department of Nursing Develoment and Education, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Rita K. Adeniran, RN, MSN, CMAC, CNAA, BC, Department of Nursing Education & Development, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and Pamela Mack-Brooks, MSN, CRNP, Womens Health, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
One of the outputs of globalization is increased diversity. Globalization and diversity have provided opportunities for healthcare leaders to make a difference in health outcomes for culturally diverse patient populations. Healthcare leaders that embrace diversity benefit from the assets and resources that exist in diverse cultures, races, religions, languages, and ethnic backgrounds. Leadership can utilize the assets that exist in diverse groups to unleash creativity and create new possibilities that can help improve health outcomes for all. The leadership vision would assert diversity, pluralism, inclusion and cultural competence as an indispensable variable of the organizational fabric; providing resources needed to support culturally competent care and designing collaborative partnerships and opportunities in working with local, national and global communities. This will ultimately improve access to quality, and equitable healthcare services for all.