Page 13 - ASCO Cultural Competency Toolkit

C. Skills
▪ Ability to assess and adjust one’s responses, biases, and cultural preconceptions on an ongoing basis.
▪ Ability to elicit patients’ social, family, and medical histories, including patients’ health beliefs, practices, and explanatory models.
▪ Ability to foster positive therapeutic alliances with diverse patients and assess patients’ expectations around levels of interactive formality with clinicians.
▪ Valuing and incorporating the patients’ beliefs and understanding into diagnosis, treatment options, and preventive health care where possible.
▪ Ability to negotiate conflicting patient/clinician perspectives.
▪ Ability to access, interact, and collaborate with diverse local communities for the purpose of
understanding their traditional or group-specific health care practices and needs, and tailoring
effective outreach, prevention, and educational programs and materials.
▪ Ability to assess patients’ communication skills and preferences as they relate to their ability to
communicate fully with the practitioner and staff.
▪ Ability to assess understanding of written instructions, prescriptions, and educational materials.
(While language and literacy issues may be particularly important in working with limited English
speakers, they should be considered in relating to all patients.)
▪ Ability to realistically assess one’s proficiency in languages other than one’s own, and acquisition
of the skills for effective use of interpreters, including working with an untrained interpreter, a
trained interpreter, and telephone interpreting.
▪ Ability to access translated written materials through one’s organizations (e.g., American
Optometric Association, National Eye Institute, National Eye Health Education Program) and
commercial resources, including computer programs and web-based resources.
▪ Ability to retrieve data concerning cultural issues in health care, population data, and
epidemiological information from various reputable information sources.
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