Cultural Competence, Article Critique Example

After reading the articles by Collins (2006), Sensor (2006), Alexander (2006), and Jeffreys (2006), I am now strongly informed about cultural competence and its relevance to the conduct and practice of healthcare professionals. In this essay, I summarize the three aspects of the articles that I found helpful in gaining my understanding of cultural competence and three aspects that I did not find helpful in doing so.

The first element that I found helpful was that the articles were usually straightforward in stating important points. The bulleted points used in all of the articles introduced me directly to various aspects of cultural competence, such as what it is about and what it demands of healthcare professionals such as nurses. The second helpful element is that the articles built from what I knew. The introduction of Collins (2006) in particular was crucial to my understanding since it began with a review of concepts of culture first before connecting those concepts with cultural competence. Third, the articles, especially Jeffreys (2006) and Sensor (2006) were rich with examples and illustrations of cultural diversity in the healthcare field. I especially appreciated the illustration in Collins (2006) of people having different colors to be attended to be a healthcare professional who is himself or herself a different color.

On the other hand, the elements that I found to be unhelpful in facilitating my understanding are personal discussions that did not seem to relate to the topic, such as those found in Collins (2006, p. 53) which talk more about the author’s life than the topic itself. Another is the use of technical (non-healthcare) and advanced vocabulary that made some statements difficult to understand. Statements such as “de jure and de facto cultures” (Alexander, 2006, p. 44) created confusion rather than helped in reaching enlightenment. Lastly, I found the highly liberal use of color and font size to differentiate one section from another distracting rather than assistive. This is particularly true in the case of Alexander (2006) and Jeffreys (2006). While such design elements are supposed to help in making the person understand the content, going overboard with them can nullify their benefits.

References

Alexander, R. (2006). Diversity, cultural competence and the nursing student.

Collins, S. (2006). Is cultural competency required in today’s nursing care?

Jeffreys, M. (2006). Cultural competence in clinical practice.

Sensor, C. (2006). Culturally competent care in the workplace.