Cultural Competence

Cultural competence is a set of attitudes, skills behaviors, and policies that enable organizations and staff to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. It reflects the ability to acquire and use knowledge of the health-related beliefs, attitudes, practices, and  communications patterns of clients and their families to improve services, strengthen prhe gaps in health status among diverse population groups.

Cultural competence also focuses its attention on population-specific issues including:

• Health-related beliefs and cultural values (the socioeconomic perspective)
• Disease  prevalence (the epidemiological perspective)
• And treatment efficacy (the outcome perspective)

(cross et. At. 1989 and Lavizzo-Mourney and Mackenzie 1996 as cited in Cultural Competence: A Journey, Bureau of Primary Health Care. Health Resources and Services Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.)