Page 11 - ASCO Cultural Competency Toolkit

B. Knowledge
▪ Self-awareness of internalized beliefs, values, norms, stereotypes, and biases.
▪ Acknowledging how ethnocentrism operates in all cultures; and analysis of how it operates in
one’s own thinking and interaction with patients.
▪ Understanding of the concept of culture (that all people operate within multiple cultures) and the
connections between worldview, beliefs, norms, and behaviors related to health, illness, and care- seeking in different populations and how one’s own cultures, including the cultures of biomedicine, inform perceptions and behaviors.
▪ Knowledge of local and national demographics with attention to specific populations, changing demographics, and considerations for one’s current and future professional practice.
▪ Knowledge of legal, regulatory, and accreditation issues which address cultural and linguistic issues in healthcare, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) position on civil rights and language access, federal and state cultural competence contract requirements for publicly funded health care, state legislation around the provision of language services and culturally sensitive health care, and the DHHS National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS).
▪ Knowledge of cultural and linguistic policy or standards espoused by one’s professional associations (e.g., Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry, American Optometric Association) and understanding of how cultural competence and humility support the goals of professional education.
▪ Knowledge of the kinds and degrees of disparities in health status, health care access, and use of preventive strategies across racial, ethnic, gender, and other discrete population groups in the United States and how class, racial and ethnic discrimination, social and structural variables, including the structure of health care, contribute to these disparities.
▪ Exploration of family structure and dynamics, health beliefs, behaviors, and health practices demonstrated in different cultures and population groups, especially those in the local areas of service.
▪ Understanding of the concept of medical pluralism – the concurrent use of both traditional and biomedical systems of care – and familiarity with the kinds of healers and healing traditions within one’s communities of practice or those frequently associated with one’s specialty field. (Improved understanding of traditional practices can lead to improved clinician-patient or clinician-family interaction.)
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