Healthcare Diversity & Cultural Competency Training
Culture is more diverse than ever in 2022, and it’s time healthcare catches up to the changes in communities worldwide. Unfortunately, marginalized communities report bias, lack of understanding, and overall lower quality of care. These drawbacks result from failing to recognize the unique differences within cultures. As a result, healthcare as a whole fails to provide appropriate services for many individuals.
Building teams with cultural awareness and competency helps to curb these problems. In organizations that implement cultural competency training, teams become more diverse and productive. Plus, they connect with their communities to provide competent health care. Experts with CoachDiversity Institute help bring tools, understanding, and certifications to individuals and professionals within the healthcare industry looking to make a lasting change towards cultural competency.
What is cultural competency training?
Understanding cultural competency training starts with understanding what culture is and isn’t. Culture isn’t a perceived set of behaviors one possesses about a specific group of people or stereotyping. It is, however, the language, customs, behaviors, beliefs, and knowledge that people carry as part of their identity. We believe that cultural competency is to respect diversity and have an understanding of, and honor, the histories, cultures, languages, and traditions of all people!
Once individuals understand that there are minute subtleties within the cultural fabric of society, the transition from cultural awareness to cultural competency happens. While cultural awareness is understanding that cultural differences exist, cultural competency brings attention to this at a systematic level.
Cultural competency training gives individuals the advanced skills needed to impact culture-wide change. These individuals are leaders and advocates for fair environments where everyone can succeed. Building an environment with diversity as a focus helps create equal access to vital services.
How does cultural competency training build healthcare diversity?
Healthcare diversity equates to stronger patient connections. This connection allows healthcare workers to provide better care for patients by understanding the hardships individuals of various backgrounds encounter. Cultural competency in healthcare brings facts about a community’s culture into conversations. It gives advanced intercultural communication skills to navigate unconscious bias.
When organizations implement cultural diversity training in healthcare provider establishments, a shift in mentality occurs. The new mentality is one of diversity, and it shows up in hiring practices, patient diagnosis, and overall patient satisfaction. Unfortunately, bias due to lack of diversity causes health disparities and appropriate health care services from reaching those who need them most.
Who benefits from this training?
There are several benefits of taking cultural competency training for healthcare professionals. Starting at the leadership level, cultural competence training benefits managers through increased communication, decreased misunderstandings, and improved collaboration. Managers also note that cultural competency training helps with overall job satisfaction and increased productivity.
Clinicians and frontline workers are the next to benefit from cultural competency training. Employees with a deep understanding of cultural bias, nuance, and sensitivities provide high-quality patient service. These employees work intimately with diverse patients and ethnic minorities.
Coaches, mental health professionals, social workers, government employees, non-profits, and executives benefit from cultural competency training—these positions of power help place lasting change within communities and organizations.
Finally, cultural competency training benefits the community at large. Medical professionals are an integral part of society, and improved patient care leads to better productivity at a high level. Various corporations are paving the way in terms of cultural competence training. Unilever, for example, established a training course better to understand their LGBTQ+, Latinx, and African-American audiences.
Other notable companies shifting towards cultural competence include Merck, which celebrates women’s achievements and Black history. T-Mobile has a robust DEI department, and Accenture employs people from different countries on the same teams.
Choose the right learning path for you or your healthcare team
With the increasing diversity in today’s world, it’s more important than ever to be aware of and be sensitive to different cultures. Investing in multicultural education is a great way to ensure that your team is equipped to work effectively with people from all cultures.
PATH 1: Associate Diversity Coach
Associate Diversity Coach (ADC) involves 60 training hours. Attend Session 1 Coaching Foundations and complete the remaining hours virtually. This diversity and inclusion certification curriculum includes coaching foundations. You will be able to begin your coaching practice with a solid foundation of core coaching competencies. No additional in-person classroom time is required.
What you get:
- 30 hours of in-person training (Session 1)
- 6 virtual learning labs
- 12 peer coaching hours
- 10 mentor coaching hours
- 2 hours self-study writing assignment
This diversity training certification program takes approximately 4 months to complete. This designation helps you qualify for the ICF membership and apply for the ICF’s certification and credentialing through the ACC ACSTH Path.
PATH 2: Certified Professional Diversity Coach
Certified Professional Diversity Coach (CPDC) includes 125 training hours. Attend Session 1 Coaching Foundations; Session 2 Coaching & Cultural Competencies; and Session 3 Inclusive Leadership & Business Development.
The CPDC level certification curriculum includes coaching foundations, advanced coaching techniques, more profound emotional intelligence work, CoachDiversity’s model for diversity and inclusion, cultural competence, and leadership and business development. You will learn the coach-approach to developing cultural competence as a certified diversity professional. The topics covered:
- Developing awareness of the cultural difference
- Cultivating a non-judgmental attitude toward difference
- Transforming bias toward inclusion
- Coaching principles and cultural competency
- Minority stress
- Managing conflict around diversity and inclusion in the workplace
- Coaching micro-aggressions
What you get:
- 90 hours of in-person training (Sessions 1, 2 & 3)
- 6 virtual learning labs
- 12 peer coaching hours
- 10 mentor coaching hours
- 2 hours self-study writing assignment
- 5 hours of business development
This diversity inclusion certification program takes approximately six months to complete. This designation helps you qualify for the ICF membership and apply for the ICF’s certification and credentialing through the PCC ACSTH Path.
No matter which route you choose, taking steps to learn more about multicultural education will benefit you and your team. Learning about other cultures can help your organization create a more inclusive environment for everyone.
CoachDiversity Institute provides accredited educational programs and modules to help coach healthcare organizations and navigate the needs of patients. The first step in improving your organization’s cultural competence is recognizing the importance of these skills for you and your teams. Each program meets National Clas Standards meant to gauge preparedness for combating healthcare disparities.
Healthcare professionals and individuals looking to broaden their cultural knowledge have access to tons of resources. CoachDiversity Institute publishes books on cultural awareness and diversity to give guidance. Materials cover how to handle cultural issues such as equality for people with disabilities, bisexuals, transgender, and other sexual orientations.
Regardless of how you decide to learn, choosing the right path will make the difference. While it’s practical to obtain cultural competency training, it might not be applicable for everyone to get certified. CoachDiversity Institute has programs that fit everyone’s needs.
Cultural Competency Training for Healthcare Discussion Topics
Cultural competency training for healthcare professionals covers various topics vital to the success of an organization. Attendees can expect to explore some of the following issues during cultural competency training.
- Understanding Demographic Distribution in the Community – Professionals will learn to identify, accept, and understand cultural differences. These differences include everything from languages other than English to the importance of time and how medical care fits into belief systems. Understanding culture helps understand needs.
- Recruiting and Training Qualified Individuals with Diverse Backgrounds – Hiring individuals of various cultural groups builds organizational diversity. Including LGBTQ, foreign cultural backgrounds, or various genders builds community engagement.
- Take Pulse of an Organization’s Cultural Competence – Using the skills learned during cultural competency training, skilled individuals can identify areas of opportunity and begin to take action. Certifications empower individuals in coaching and implementing changes.
- Reducing Implicit Bias – Implicit bias hurts some and benefits others. Understanding where the bias comes from helps eliminate cultural discrimination in the workforce. Cultural competence training provides toolkits to curtail bais and level the playing field for patients.
- Providing High-Quality Patient Care – Pulling skills together and implementing lasting changes. Cultural competence within the healthcare industry means providing better patient care.
Training in cultural competency will involve varying instruction degrees, and many programs include focused one-on-one training. These tools give leaders the skills to impart lasting change to organizations and communities.
Build healthcare diversity in your organization with CoachDiversity Institute
Cultural awareness starts with just one person who stands up to make a change. Awareness begins when understanding what culture is precisely. Taking that awareness a step further leads to cultural competence. Establishing cultural competency works best when embarking on training with professionals like those at the CoachDiversity Institute.
Thanks to the dynamic e-learning curriculum during this cultural competency training, healthcare professionals can grow teams well versed in diversity, cultural sensitivity, and community connection. Healthcare professionals, government officials, organizational leaders, and social workers are the key to imparting lasting change. Change to a health care system that frequently sees unfair health equity.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the University of Southern California, the Office of Minority Health, and Tulane University have extensive data to support the benefits of cultural competency training. Specifically for healthcare professionals, understanding the community’s needs helps tailor treatment plans, expose disparity, and build connections between providers and patients.
Other support staff, managers, and investors of health outcome services also benefit from cultural competency training. Armed with the knowledge of their communities, decision-making personnel can make informed decisions on infrastructure, healthcare program requirements, and budget considerations. Meeting the public health needs of all cultures benefits everyone’s access to quality care.