Equity in Healthcare Access: Using Cultural Competency Training to Bridge the Gap between Providers and Latino Patients in Durham, NC
Date
2022-04
Author
Advisors
Balu, Rukmini
Solorzano, Rosa
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Abstract
Alongside Asians, Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States
with a projected population of 99.8 million by 2050 and 111.22 million by 2060. With
this significant uptick comes an inevitable diversification of the social, linguistic
and cultural landscapes of the country. One’s cultural background influences beliefs
about causes of illness, expectations for care, preferred treatment methods, and much
more. However, U.S. healthcare providers and the overall systems within which they
work are not always equipped with the proper knowledge, tools, and resources to equitably
treat all Latino patients seeking care. As a result, the Latino population faces significant
inequities in acceptability and appropriateness access which asks, ‘”what happens
to a Latino patient upon obtaining physical access to a health system?” “How do their
sociocultural beliefs influence their interactions” and furthermore, “what is the
quality of the relationship between the patient and the provider?”
With this in mind, the aim for the study component was to assess the impact of a cultural
competency educational intervention at a Duke Health Clinic via the implementation
of an original survey instrument that gauges need satisfaction concordance amongst
Latino patients and their providers. The results indicated that both patients and
providers reported highest overall satisfaction with the demonstration of cultural
comfort, however providers indicated that they felt the weakest about their demonstration
of cultural humility and patients felt the weakest about the maximization of cultural
opportunities during the clinical encounter.
While there is still much room for improvement, significant progress has been made,
especially over the past twenty years, in the incorporation of diversity frameworks
within healthcare institutions. The next step is to standardize and equitably disseminate
them throughout the country so that all providers are rightfully equipped and all
patients are rightfully served.
Type
Honors thesisPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24823Citation
Green, Azana (2022). Equity in Healthcare Access: Using Cultural Competency Training to Bridge the Gap
between Providers and Latino Patients in Durham, NC. Honors thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24823.Collections
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