Activity 4 – Cultural Competence

Introduction: Cultural competence is integral to quality care, and a body of evidence has identified that culturally competent healthcare professionals have a positive impact on patient safety and wellbeing.

Instructions: In this activity you will meet Mrs Aneesh Ayman, a 42-year-old woman admitted for abdominal pain for investigation. Mrs Ayam was granted refugee status two years ago after fleeing from her home in Syria. Understanding Mrs Ayman’s cultural needs is critical to the provision of safe and person-centred care.

While watching a short video depicting Mrs Ayman returning to the ward from radiology, examine the communication interaction between Ellie and the male nurse. Following the film, you will be presented with 10 questions. Your answers will be graded automatically, and you will receive feedback on completion of the activity.

Outside of the patient’s room, Ellie later expressed her concerns to the male nurse about the comments he had made to her about Mrs Ayman. He responded by saying, ‘To me all patients are human beings and their culture, ethnicity or race do not matter. I provide equal care for everybody’.

Ellie thought she should contact the interpreter service as she wanted to understand why Mrs Ayman had become distressed in the radiology department and so that she could explain to Mrs Ayman the reason for the CT scan.

Rather than engaging an interpreter, one of the other nurses told Ellie that it would be quicker and more cost effective to ask Mrs Ayman’s cousin or the Arabic speaking ward clerk to interpret.

Through the interpreter, Ellie learned that since arriving in Australia Mrs Ayman had struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of her experiences in Syria, and that she had not been prepared for the small enclosed space inside the CT machine, which had triggered memories of imprisonment and torture.