Culture and Illness - Implications for Clinicians and Health Professionals

A MEDS Ed seminar

Download the slide deck here to follow along.

This session of CareOregon Pharmacy’s MEDS Ed program explores weaving cultural competence into our behaviors and policies, improving our cultural effectiveness and the lives of our patients.

Key Session Takeaways

(click the link to view a clip):

• Don’t be afraid to establish ground rules when having difficult conversations about diversity; tailor them to your personality. Part 1 – 7:04
• Bias comes into play when providing care or identifying/hiring talent; these biases are most often implicit or unconscious. Part 1 – 14:30
• Don’t be afraid to assess bias. One can identify current strengths, and areas where improvements can be made. Part 1 – 16:07
• Develop a value base for EDI; ultimately construe it in the clinician’s best interest, but with mutual benefits. We are doing it as much for us as for them. Part 1 – 20:17
• Focus on equity as a way of tailoring or individualizing care and understanding the patient context. Part 1 – 23:47
• Develop your own talking points and identify with whom specific arguments might resonate. Part 1 – 25:02
• Try to understand the patient in terms of their internal and external health determinants. See within-group differences, understand the categories or how we label people can inadvertently cause us to invoke new stereotypes otherwise. Part 3 – 5:29
• See diversity when you see people, not just certain people. Part 3 – 9:00
• We are all diverse and unique. Part 3 – 10:55
• Show yourself and others grace.  This is a developmental process; we all start at different point; compare yourself to yourself over time. Part 3 – 48:22
• As with any body of knowledge, understand you’ll never exhaust the need to learn about diversity; cultures and contexts change over time and knowledge is always being developed. Part 3 – 49:26

Featured Speakers

• Dr. James Mason – Chief Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer – CareOregon