A cultural competency course in healthcare is designed to provide healthcare professionals with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to understand and interact with patients from different cultures. The course enables providers to recognize and respect cultural differences in their patients' beliefs and values and to adjust their care according to a patient's particular cultural background. Such a course would cover topics such as diversity awareness, communication, implicit bias, cultural sensitivity, cultural appropriateness, and cultural humility.
Providers would have the opportunity to learn how to recognize common cultural expressions, nonverbal communication cues, and gestures and to address healthcare disparities and health literacy issues that may arise from cultural differences. Finally, through the course, providers would be encouraged to take further steps to ensure that they provide equitable, sensitive, and culturally competent care for all of their patients.
