Examining provider perspectives surrounding cultural competencies: An integrative review

This review explores the provider perspectives regarding cultural competency to pinpoint common themes that emerge from the existing literature.

Cultural competency is vital in healthcare and remains a burgeoning area of interest in the healthcare landscape. Nevertheless, achieving mastery of these competencies remains challenging as health inequities persist that affect the care received by minority populations.

This integrative review analyzed themes of provider perspectives regarding cultural competency. Relevant studies were retrieved from PubMed and CINAHL and other articles were obtained through manual searches. Only articles that explored nurse/ provider perspectives were considered.

Four major themes were extracted including culturally sensitive communication perspectives, provider attitudes, identified barriers and recommendations for improvement. Subthemes for culturally sensitive communication perspectives include problematic terminology and overgeneralizations, while subthemes developed for provider attitudes include discomfort, judgment, disbelief, unawareness and awareness. Provider-identified barriers to cultural competency included subthemes of language differences, lack of training, resource constraints and resistance to change. Recommendations for improving cultural competency included recognizing knowledge gaps, developing strategies to increase knowledge and finally obtaining organizational and leadership support.

Developing culturally sensitive communication skills is critical to delivering culturally competent care. Provider attitudes are affected by insufficient training, judgment and awareness levels. Negative attitudes could contribute to resistance to change. Provider recommendations to improve cultural competency include the development of a consistent, comprehensive and mandatory training program that identifies specific knowledge gaps. Organizational and leadership support at policy and local levels were necessary to propel meaningful and lasting change.