Return to Main Menu

Cultural diversity workshop: first step to understanding by Cindy Abole Public Relations On Nov. 1, MUSC sponsored a workshop and panel presentation for hospital staff to help them learn how to bridge cultural gaps and provide culturally appropriate care. The half-day workshop, “Providing Care to Patients from Different Cultures,” was sponsored by the Medical Center's Department of Clinical and Patient Education. It was designed to help define cultural diversity and the need for cultural competence among staff working within the medical center.    It emphasized the need to treat every patient as an individual and avoid stereotyping while recognizing a common respect for a patient’s personal beliefs, values and practices of various cultures. The importance of identifying and providing local resources for patients to help meet specific needs was also discussed.   The response to the program was overwhelming. “Staff at MUSC have always demonstrated an extremely high level of care and concern for their patients,“ said Carol McDougall, director of professional development and instructor, College of Nursing and coordinator for clinical and patient education.   McDougall feels that the workshop truly fulfilled a need. She said that staff had been asking for information to care for an increasingly culturally diverse patient population. She said that this workshop was extremely successful in fulfilling this need. “Cultural diversity workshops often present information about various cultures without real sensitivity to the cultural group and end up with a 'stereotype' of the culture,” she said. “In our workshop, discussion of cultural values and practices were presented by a native of the cultural group.  The audience had the opportunity to dialog with these persons and came away with an increased understanding of our diverse cultural values.”   The program was led by co-presenters Patient Education Coordinator Karen Rankine and Nursing Faculty Mary Ellen Howell, who teaches at the Francis Marion University nursing satellite.           Following a general introduction, participants were given a self-awareness quiz to examine their assumptions about culture. Next, the group broke into small groups for discussion and reviewed hospital case studies dealing with common patient topics including death and dying, childbirth, alternative and folk medicine, etc.   “Caring for patients from many cultures is an important part of health care today,” Rankine said.  “Accepting cultural differences and identifying appropriate resources like interpreters help to meet patient needs thus, providing optimal patient care.”           Rankine, who has worked at MUSC Children's Hospital for 22 years, assumed her new role in January. Among her first projects was to coordinate an interdisciplinary task force to assess the hospital's needs and resources in regards to non-English speaking patients. Her group included representatives from the nursing staff, pastoral care and International Programs and Services, which manages MUSC's volunteer foreign language interpreters list.     An immediate and identifiable need was to have the presence of a full-time Spanish interpreter. With a growing Hispanic population came language barriers for patients and practitioners especially in departments like pediatrics and Ob/Gyn. In August, McDougall hired Mac Pappas, an Argentinian-born American who provides Spanish language interpretation for patients and staff throughout the Medical Center and Institute of Psychiatry.            Key to the workshop was a gathering of ethnically diverse specialists from MUSC's own faculty and staff in a panel presentation representing various cultures.   “People today are more curious and want to know about the presence of different cultures around them,” said Pappas, who answered questions about Hispanic culture. Pappas' presentation focused on a patient care guideline booklet dealing with developing cultural competencies. She hoped that the workshop helped clarify more realistic impressions of people of various cultures versus the way groups are stereotyped in the TV and other mediums.           Nurse and study coordinator Ida Spruill, R.N., has more than 20 years experience in social work and nursing working specifically among Lowcountry black communities. She emphasized that her view should not be the blueprint for all blacks in and out of South Carolina.   “The most common mistake made is that we do not recognize the importance of individuality within cultural groups,” Spruill said. “Themes like gender, generation and geography are important aspects that distinguish people as individuals. It would be a mistake if we failed to see this and treated people within a specific culture all in the same way.”           Pakistani-born Shakaib Rehman, M.D.,  emphasized the need for practitioners to take more time to learn and understand their patients. He believes the results can be therapeutic.   “When we understand, we tend to want to improve our care for patients,” said Rehman, assistant professor of medicine and attending physician in internal medicine at the Ralph Johnson VA Medical Center. Rehman spoke about the cultural differences among people of Muslim descent. “It's good for us as practitioners and as a key medical provider in the community.”          According to Rehman, there are distinct differences in the care between a patient from New York and a patient from Summerville. It is these subtle differences that need to be identified, understood and improved to help provide quality care for patients of all nationalities.   “I think this is an initial step in what will become frequently offered programs in cultural diversity,“ said McDougall.  “We plan to use the feedback from this session to develop a full day conference to offer to health care professionals around the state. We are also looking at co-sponsored programs with the Health Research and Services Administration to ensure that we as an organization are addressing cultural needs. The target audience for the co-sponsored programs will be all levels of health care providers and administrators.”