Purpose & Scope

Purpose:

• The Embracing Cultural Diversity in Health Care: Developing Cultural Competence BPG does not focus directly on cultural competence as it relates to patients, but rather on cultural competence as it relates to the workplace and workforce.
• Overall Goal and Objectives

To promote a healthy work environment for nurses by identifying best practices for embracing diversity within health care organizations. The goal is achieved through these objectives:

1. Identify culturally competent practices that enhance outcomes for nurses, organizations and systems.

2. Identify organizational values, relationships, structures and processes required for developing and sustaining culturally competent practices.

Scope:

This guideline addresses:

• Knowledge, competencies and behaviours that exist in culturally competent workplaces
• Indicators and features of culturally competent practice settings
• Organizational values, relationships, structures and processes that support development of culturally competent practices
• Learning and development required to develop, support, and sustain culturally competent practices
• Behaviours and practices that reflect cultural awareness and serve as facilitators to embracing diversity in the workplace

The recommendations in this guideline address:

• Culturally competent practices in the workplace
• Individual competencies, management practices and institutional policies that reflect culturally competent practices
• Transformational strategies for embracing diversity at the level of the individual, group, organization, and health care system
• Educational requirements and strategies to ensure a culturally competent workforce
• Policy changes to support and sustain culturally competent practices
• Future research opportunities