Aloha Colleagues!
Vulnerable, powerless, lack of control, helpless. These words describe how many people are feeling in response to the stay at home orders due to the corona virus. These words may also explain how some minorities feel when they interact with health care. Why? When minorities seek care, they may not be aware that they can speak up, to question, to be part of their care plan. Despite many efforts to improve health care access, minorities continue to suffer from health disparities such as chronic diseases and with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The National Institutes of Health, culture is as a combination of knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. Culture is part of personal identification, language, thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, racial, religious, geographic, or social groups. Health care recognizes health as wholistic but is not always inclusive of values and ideas that are not born of science. Health care that is respectful and responsive to the needs of diverse patients is critical in reducing health disparities. The thing is, we may think we are respectful and inclusive but are we? We all have biases. Awareness of this bias is vital in being culturally sensitive to others. Especially here in Hawai’i, we encounter a variety of cultures, beliefs, social groups that are different than our own.
Well, here’s an opportunity for you to grow in cultural awareness, bias and gain free continuing education credits and for a limited time receive a gift card! You are invited to participate in a practice inquire project aimed to increase cultural awareness and bias. If you choose to participate, you will receive nine continuing education credits. For completing the short pre-and post-survey, you will receive a small gift card. Prior to registration please review the consent form and follow these instructions to register.
Nurses have always worked tirelessly to show compassion while protecting the needs of the individual. Thank you for your service to your patients and the community.
Malama Pono!
U’ilani
Disclaimer: The continuing education (CE) credits offered here are part of a study organized by the University of Hawaii and are not affiliated with Hawaii Nurses Continuing Education.