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Cultural Competency in Paramedicine
Paramedics work with patients with any type of medical complaint in any setting. This means they have to have a very high standard of skills to enable them to deliver care in a safe and acceptable manner. In a multicultural society such as the UK this means they have to have cultural competency.
Our project uses Charbonneau et al’s (2009) definition of cultural competency.
“a process in which an understanding of cultural attitudes, values, beliefs and practices is used to help guide care for an individual, taking into consideration specific history and needs, and avoiding the use of stereotypes and personal biases”.
We are investigating how people’s personal life experiences and professional training impacts on their cultural competency with regard to ethnicity in their professional practice.
According to the Department of Health, ethnicity is important in healthcare for two primary reasons (King’s Fund, 2006). The first being the concept of ‘responsiveness’ i.e. “how well the health system meets the legitimate expectations of the population for the non-health enhancing aspects of the health system” (Darby et al, 2003, p.1). This means having health services that meet the people’s needs through the organisation of services and the delivery of care (Care Quality commission (CQC), 2022a).
The second is the existence of ethnic health inequalities (King’s Fund, 2006). These are avoidable differences in health outcomes between groups or populations (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities 2022). However, health inequalities do not pertain only to differences in health outcomes. They include preventable and unfair differences in access to services (King’s Fund, 2006), experience and quality of care given (Williams et al, 2022), development of health conditions (NHS England, 2023b) and health outcomes. The causes of health inequalities are complex and multifaceted.
Our project is informed by the appreciative enquiry philosophy. We are trying to identify when professionals act with a good standard of cultural competency. We want to look at what training, circumstances, and motivations lead to culturally competency paramedic care. We are doing this with a survey and some in depth interviews.
Survey
Please read the information sheet before you start the survey - available in word or pdf formats. Click here to access the survey.
Interviews
We are also interviewing paramedics about their experiences of gaining cultural competency, and the utility of it in practice. If you are interested in being interviewed about this important issue please read the information sheet and consent form (in word or pdf formats) and email Hafsa to take part.
Interviews
We are also interviewing paramedics about their experiences of gaining cultural competency, and the utility of it in practice. If you are interested in being interviewed about this important issue please read the information sheet and consent form (in word or pdf formats) and email Hafsa to take part.