Intercultural Awareness for Global Healthcare Advancement - Essay Sample

Introduction

SUBJECT: The Importance of Intercultural Awareness in Communication for the Advancement of Global Healthcare.

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Intercultural awareness is important in the development of cross-cultural understanding. My intention for writing this memo to the audience of MEDLINE readers is informed by the fact that MEDLINE is a renowned worldwide database for peer-reviewed articles associated with health care particularly on topics such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and pediatrics, etcetera. As a platform where healthcare professionals interact, the audience is composed of healthcare workers who are engaged in various healthcare services provision. Thus, the entire fraternity of health care professionals is targeted for this communication as they are actively engaged in the communication processes that lead to the delivery of health care services to members of the public worldwide.

As an outsider observing people of different cultures interact, it is worthy of note to mention that miscommunication stems from the development of bias and prejudices about other cultures. In essence, cultural understanding is enhanced in an environment where mutual respect is developed and maintained during the communication process. To this end, intercultural communication requires intercultural understanding where empathy is the key determinant of successful intercultural communication interactions. Therefore, it is of importance to conduct research and develop background knowledge about an unfamiliar culture that you anticipate to interact with in the future. Having background knowledge makes one aware of personal biases about the opposite culture and also understands the potential biases about their own culture as expressed by the individual of the opposite culture.

As healthcare providers, having an adept understanding of the importance of intercultural communication can go a long way in enhancing intercultural knowledge and understanding about healthcare. In other words, as global health care professionals, it is our collective obligation to make an effort to reach out to people from various cultural backgrounds for the betterment of advanced global health. A good example is the development of knowledge and awareness regarding vaccinations. Notably, vaccinations are viewed from different perspectives in various cultures. An understanding of the intercultural basis of knowledge pertaining to the discourse on vaccines and their implications can help break down barriers to attaining 100% vaccinations to prevent the instance of preventable ailments.

Therefore, my core message is a clarion call for the development of intercultural awareness among practitioners in the health care profession. Whether a medic in nursing, physician or pediatrician, there will come a time when you will interact with a patient or a client from a different culture than your own. In this regard, it is imperative that you become aware of how your cultural prejudice and biases may affect the interaction between you and your patient. Therefore, intercultural awareness is imperative in the health care profession as it enhances cultural empathy, which in turn raises the possibility of attaining quality health care outcomes. When both parties engaged in the communication process are aware of their individual biases about each other's cultures. It becomes more tolerable to accommodate differences.

In essence, developing intercultural awareness during the communication process serves to be advantageous as it facilitates the smooth and appropriate communication interaction between the health care provider and the patient. As such, the mission of all health care providers is to expand access to health care globally. This means that health care providers must interact with people from cultures other than their nativity. For this reason, building intercultural competency skills will serve to facilitate the realization of this dream. I urge all healthcare providers to work towards the nurturing of intercultural skills.