Rural Cultural Competence in Healthcare
What are the characteristics of Rural Culture?
Self-reliance; Conservatism; Work orientation; Emphasis on family and religion; Individualism; Distrust of outsiders; Traditional gender roles; Greater poverty; Larger proportion of older adults; Lower levels of educational attainment; Access difficulties; Isolation
What is Cultural Competence?
Cultural competence is understanding the importance of social and cultural influences on patients’ health beliefs and behaviors; considering how these factors interact at multiple levels of the health care delivery system; and devising interventions that take these issues into account to assure quality health care delivery. It refers to services that are respectful of, and responsive to the health beliefs, practices, cultural, and linguistic needs of diverse patient populations.
How does Rural Cultural Competence improve health care?
Cultural Competence refers to providing services in a way that is respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices, cultural, and linguistic needs of a diverse patient population. It includes an understanding of the determining role that culture plays in all of our lives and of the impact culture has on every health care encounter. It is a combination of attitudes, knowledge base, acquired skills, and behavior and helps health professionals learn more about the impact of culture on health decisions.
Project Background
The goal is to improve the cultural competency of health professions faculty, students, and health care practitioners in the disciplines of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, social work, and allied health in rural West Virginia’s medically underserved communities.
There is a profound need in West Virginia for a healthcare workforce who are
equipped to work with a rural elderly population. The facts are that West
Virginia has the 4th highest percentage of elderly in the nation (15.0%); by
2025, 1 in 4 will be 65 or older; the highest median age (37.8) in the US; many
of the elderly are poorly educated; many live in poverty; suffer from physical
limitations; and live alone.
Many elders living in rural areas are in themselves likely to differ from the culture and background of their health care providers. Rural elders of minority status have a double jeopardy. Experience gained in West Virginia to help overcome these cultural barriers of rural-dwelling elders will be applicable in many other states.
As the population of the country and West Virginia ages, it is critical to have health care providers who are culturally sensitive to the unique needs of the population that they serve. Culturally competent curriculum and practice will challenge the negative stereotypes about rural West Virginia and aging adults and broaden the students’ range of experiences and knowledge base, providing them with an enriching opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the rural elderly.
Project Goal
Improve the cultural competence of health professions faculty, students and health care practitioners from the disciplines of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, social work, and allied health
Project Methodology
Work with faculty and students of six West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnership (WVRHEP), to raise awareness of rural cultural issues among West Virginia’s elderly population, increase their knowledge and skills, and encourage self-assessment of cultural competence.
Create five interdisciplinary cases to be updated in Interdisciplinary Sessions, problem based learning (PBL) and continuing education programs.
Create two modules, “Cultural Issues in Care of the Elderly” and “Rural Aging,” as teaching tools for faculty and online courses for students and providers.
Training and continuing education programs will be provided to field faculty through regional faculty develop workshops within the MSGEC consortium.
A statewide conference on culturally competent health care will be held May 25-27, 2005 for a wide range of healthcare professionals and paraprofessionals.
The field faculty will pilot a brief cultural assessment tool for use with rural elderly patients. Students will be trained to use the assessment tool and use it with at least 10 rural elderly patients during their rural clinical training.
Increase awareness of the importance of cultural competence for health care providers will include website development, materials development, community outreach and publicity.
This project is supported by funds from the Division of Interdisciplinary Community based Programs (DICP), Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), under grant number 5 D31 HP 70132-03 Mountain State Geriatric Education Center (MSGEC) for $1,330,759.00. The information and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should be any endorsements be inferred by the HRSA, DHHS or the U.S. Government.
This project is supported by funds from the Division of Interdisciplinary Community based Programs (DICP, Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), under grant number 5 D31 HP 70132-03 Mountain State Geriatric Education Center (MSGEC) for $1,330,759.00. The information and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should be any endorsements be inferred by the HRSA, DHHS or the U.S. Government.
