Biography
Biography: Larry Purnell
Abstract
The last 20 to 25 years have seen a remarkable increase in incorporating cultural competence in nursing and healthcare curricula and measuring cultural competence, primarily as a means for decreasing health and healthcare disparities among vulnerable populations. One of the major goals of culturally competent nursing and healthcare practice is to decrease health and healthcare disparities. All healthcare professionals need similar information for cultural competence. Culturally competent practice includes the applying evidence-based care that is in agreement with the preferred cultural values, beliefs, worldview, and practices of the healthcare consumer and stakeholders. However, to date, most of the tools measure knowledge, skills, and abilities but not true competence from a clinical practice perspective. Several tools measure and/or evaluate the organization’s cultural diversity mission but not the providers of healthcare. This presentation will present a number of tools that purport cultural competence with recommendations for actually measuring providers' cultural congruent practice. Participants will be able to engage in dialogue as to what is currently being done in their practice setting and identify what more needs to be done. Ethical concerns will also be addressed.