Work force diversity leads to cultural sensitivity
Understanding starts within your agency
One tactic to improve your agency’s cultural sensitivity is to make sure your work force reflects the diversity of your patient population, according to experts interviewed by Hospital Home Health.
Workplace diversity, however, means that efforts to improve cultural sensitivity should apply to the workplace as well as your patients’ homes, says Mary Jo Clark, RN, BSN, MSA, home care management consultant for RBC Limited, a management consulting firm in Staatsburg, NY.
Something as simple as culturally themed lunches help employees get to know each other’s background, she says.
"An agency can sponsor a Caribbean or Italian lunch day and have employees bring in foods related to the theme," she suggests. Finding out about traditional foods can lead to finding out about climate, crops, and customs, she adds.
Remember to recognize religious practices as well, says Ann Hutchinson, RN, BSN, clinical supervisor of the Downriver Office of Henry Ford Home Health in Lincoln Park, MI.
"We have a clerical employee who is a Jehovah’s Witness, so he does not celebrate any Christian holidays," she says.
Gift exchanges and celebrations for Christmas in the office still occur, but they are more subdued, and colleagues accept the fact that the employee cannot participate, she adds.
Henry Ford Health System also produces a diversity calendar that explains a different culture each year, Hutchinson says.
In addition to the calendar, seminars, and inclusion of cultural difference situations in case management meetings, Henry Ford Home Care has a storyboard that travels from branch to branch, she says.
"The storyboard discusses different holidays and explains the customs related to each," she explains. Martin Luther King Day, Kwanzaa, and Cinco de Mayo are a few of the observances addressed by the display, she adds.
Sometimes, you need to take cultural differences into account when you receive complaints about your employees, Clark points out.
"Once, I had a Jewish patient complain that her Caribbean aide did not know how to cook," she says.
After talking with the aide, Clark learned that the aide had been preparing Caribbean food because that’s what she knew how to cook.
"I suggested to the patient that she teach the aide how to prepare foods she liked. Not only did this involve the patient in food preparation, but the aide learned new skills, and the patient liked her food, she explains.
Taking a stand against intolerance
Stand by your employees and your employment policies, Hutchinson recommends. "We do encounter patients who state that they don’t want nurses or aides of certain races, nationalities, or genders. In fact, one patient stated that he did not want any black people taking care of him when an African-American aide made her first visit," she says.
The nurse who had been seeing the patient and had developed a good rapport, told the patient that the agency did not discriminate and could not assign him aides based on their race, she explains. Then the nurse went with the aide on several visits, making sure the patient saw that the aide was competent and provided good care. Soon the patient became comfortable with the aide and the agency had no complaints, she adds.
Be sure to give employees the tools to deal with situations they encounter, Hutchinson suggests. "One nurse was caring for an Arab patient who insisted that she drink coffee when she first arrived."
"This nurse did not normally drink coffee but was afraid to decline the offer because it would offend the patient," she explains.
Hutchinson says that after the nurse described her dilemma, a supervisor at the case conference pointed out that the home care agency’s policy is that employees do not eat or drink anything in the patient’s home.
"This gave the nurse the ability to respectfully decline the coffee and explain that she was following the rules of her employment and in no way wanted to offend the patient," she says.
One tactic to improve your agencys cultural sensitivity is to make sure your work force reflects the diversity of your patient population, according to experts interviewed by Hospital Home Health.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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