Developing a Cross-Cultural Mindset
Comunication Skills That Work Across Many Cultures
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Memorizing lists of dos and don'ts per culture is impractical and leads to stereotyping. Instead, think in terms of developing a cross-cultural mindset. Here are the four key steps.
- Begin to build awareness around aspects of culture that aren't visible - the values, beliefs, and attitudes that drive the visible aspects of culture, including culture-based healing practices.
- Pay attention to your thoughts. Do you assume your culture's way of doing things is "normal" and everything else is less valid? If so, you trivialize difference automatically. Members of a dominant culture in any society are inclined to do this. Maintaining “cultural humility” with patients is crucial.
- Learn more about your own culture to establish a baseline for learning about cultural differences.
- Be willing to adjust your behavior. If you just keep on doing what you've always done, you miss opportunities to achieve successful health outcomes with your patients.
 | "As clinicians, we need to 'check our own pulse' and become aware of personal attitudes, beliefs, biases, and behaviors that may influence (consciously or unconsciously) our care of patients as well as our interactions with professional colleagues and staff from diverse racial, ethnic, and sociocultural backgrounds." |
| Quote by Robert C. Like, MD, MS, Director of the Center for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity, Department of Family Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. | |