Page 9 - ASCO Cultural Competency Toolkit

Rationale
As doctors of optometry, our mission is to provide evidence-based care that improves the ocular health of individuals and populations and works to reduce health inequities. To that effect, we must stay up-to-date on the changing health needs of our population of patients. These needs can vary by culture, identity, lived experience, and societal conditions and it is imperative that the profession continue to train future doctors of optometry to embrace historical awareness, seek cultural knowledge, and refine interpersonal skills as a way to ensure clinicians are able to build therapeutic alliances and respond effectively in new cultural environments. The provision of high-quality care is inextricable from culturally responsive care to people of all backgrounds and is needed to achieve more equitable health outcomes (Alizadeh S, et. al., 2016).
The National Center for Cultural Competence has identified additional rationale for infusing cultural competence and humility into the training curriculum of health professions:
▪ To address historical issues in health care, such as those issues relating to racism, discrimination, access to care, and significant disparities in health outcomes.
▪ To address the fact that the formal education of many faculty and staff has not prepared them to incorporate cultural and linguistic competence into teaching and research methodologies.
▪ To ensure that students develop prerequisite areas of awareness, knowledge, and skills in cultural and linguistic competence.
▪ To facilitate workforce diversity, both for its reflection of the population served and for its inherent strengths.
▪ To prepare the future workforce to lead, teach, develop, and administer public health policy and to practice in a multicultural environment.
▪ To respond to legislative, regulatory, and accreditation mandates.
▪ To serve the institution’s and professional’s best interests by providing a competitive edge in (1)
recruiting and retaining faculty and students and (2) obtaining grant funding for teaching, service, research, and other initiatives (Goode &Dunne, 2004).
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