Complete
the same self-assessment that you did at the start of this course. Compare and contrast the self-assessment you
completed first (pre-assessment) with your answers from this self-assessment
(post-assessment). Are there places
where you have more knowledge? Are there
places you would still like to have more knowledge? What differences do you see? Blog about your reaction to the current
self-assessment and the differences between the two. Based on your self-assessment analysis, blog
about what will you do to continue with your journey of cultural competence?
After completing the self assessment for the second time, I did feel more knowledgable and confident about my answers than when I originally completed the assessment. I continue to work on seeing everyone as a unique individual who has something special to bring to our world. I more deeply understand the meaning of being “culturally competent” than I did before this class. My eyes have now been opened to the many disparities that the healthcare system continues to struggle with. I dispel all prior assumptions about a person based on their culture. The first time I took the assessment, I did not feel like I could confidently say that I “don't judge a book by it's cover;” but after completing the reading, videos, interviews, and surveys, I feel that I have learned to erase the stereotypes that have been engraved in my head since I was just a young girl.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this class has made me knowledgable in almost all areas that I once struggled with. I truly appreciate the richness that other cultures provide me with and I am happy that I have been able to step back from my fast-paced life to see the struggles that others go through. I really hope that I can help individuals from other cultures throughout my career and I hope that they will feel like I will respect them for who they are and what they bring to the world.
Hi Angela: I have enjoyed all your posts! I read most everyone's post and replies because this is how we learn. It is so nice to have a group of us together without being face to face and still feel for each other and respect one another...and learn! This was a very reflective class, which enlightened me to new aspects of diversity and and also confirmed that which is already engrained in me...but I forgot...
DeleteI have also notices that I am more acutely attentive to hearing subtle remarks that are quite frankly racist....the few times I notices this, I hoped it was just ignorance. So if I am given the opportunity to make a comment that might cause someone to "think about it"....I consider that to be a very good thing.
Hi Angela,
Deletesomething that you said really stood out to me, and that is the true meaning of cultural competence. I think a lot of us think that we are at least fairly competent in this area. I know that I did for many reasons, but after taking this course and learning about all the unequal things that are still happening. I realized that I did not know the "true meaning" either. I think that being culturally competent is an on-going process that we may never stop learning about, but this class and being able to read each others posts is a really good start!
I printed out and completed the cultural diversity self assessment. The first thing I noticed is that I did not really stumble or have to think as hard as the first one. If I wasn't completely satisfied with a 5, I would put a 4. My total points were up about 15, and I believe it is because of this class. Doing the interviews and readings; the thinking about and blogging; reading other students blogs, going to some cultural events, and being reminded of who I am when it comes to cultural diversity, feeling more confident in being culturally competent. I only had 3 "sometimes" this second round, compared to 7 "sometimes" in the beginning of the semester.
ReplyDeleteI have been reminded that I do connect easily with people who do not look like me, I think I knew this before, but again the activities in this class helped me to realize my strengths in cultural diversity, as I am not always around people that look different from me. I am very inquisitive, and I am amazed what others have to offer on topics and life events. This diversity is what makes us more creative, more fluid, and more at ease with ourselves and those around us. This in and of itself, is a peaceful setting.....thus, competency is cultural diversity is a prelude to Peace.
I hope to continue to be around different cultures and to not loose touch with the value of cultural competency. I believe this will happen as I graduate and go for my Masters in Health Advocacy. I hope to be around many walks of lives, where we can influence each other in positive points that benefit each other and all of us.
Christine,
DeleteGood luck with your future endeavors! Acceptance of others and what they can offer society and possibly the world could lead us to that peace you mentioned. This class, and others I have taken, does not force us to accept anything that we are not willing to accept, but to open our eyes to what is out there. We do not have to agree with everyone's values and beliefs, we just know that they are there and accept that they are different. Knowledge is a powerful force and by gaining more and using what we learn, helps us to better ourselves and those around us. Keep on learning my friend and hopefully we can all change something within ourselves to better the world around us!
Nena T.
Dear Christine, I completely agree with your comment. I felt like the cultural diversity self assessment was much easier the second time. I, too, did not feel like I stumbled through the questions like I had the first time I took the assessment. It is amazing how quickly, we, as humans have the ability to place ourselves in another person's shoes and see the world as a different place.
ReplyDeleteI do feel I have learned a lot from taking this course. When I went back to redo the Self- Assessment I found myself having an easier time answering the questions. For example, question 29: I believe there are policies and practices in place that negatively impact people outside the majority culture. In the first assessment I had trouble answering this question but the second time I could confidently answer it because of the material we learned in this class. Another question is question two: I can honestly assess my strengths and weaknesses in the area of diversity and try to improve myself. When I answered this question the first time I thought I was a diverse person since I grew up in a diverse environment. And I am however, I learned that I needed to look at diversity in other ways. Such as how does it impact other people? I didn’t really look closely at how it impacted people such as with their healthcare until this class. Overall, from taking this course I now find it easier to put myself in other people's shoes to see what they experience and understand their experience is different from mine.
ReplyDeleteHi breanna,
DeleteI agree with you on question 29! I found myself very confident with my answer the second time around.
I retook the self-assessment on cultural diversity. Taking the survey this time around was easier, but I feel as if my answers were generally the same. I did not have to stop and assess my reactions as much this time around though. As I entered more into adulthood and learned about different cultures and ethic backgrounds, I feel that my knowledge has grown leaps and bounds from when I was a child. By no means am I saying that I know everything, there is always room for more knowledge. What am I saying is that adulthood has made me more aware of the differences of those around me and how to embrace those differences. I enjoy taking classes that will challenge me to learn more and be more accepting of those differences. I know that you have all heard my rants about treating my patients as whole individuals and not just an illness or disease, but classes like this one helps me to be a better person and better nurse for those who I take care of. My goal as a nurse is to take the best care possible of those who have entrusted me with their lives and if I can not do this, I should not be in the field that I am in.
ReplyDeleteNena T.
Hi Nena: I love your rants, this class makes me want to see everybody, instead of online! I am an adult, and I can only say, we continue to learn. Just like science, we learn and there it is, but no, things change. Knowledge is about continuation of learning, staying a bit humble and thinking "oh, that makes sense" let's change that hypothesis....LOL! I learned things I knew, but I know it better now, or maybe I just understand things better now. I
DeleteI am sure you will be a wonderful nurse!
In doing the assessment on cultural diversity , I realized how important it is that all the factors we talked about that are almost a hindrance to people getting the quality healthcare they deserve.Policies and regulations should be advocated to push for a more inclusive environment ,where people of all backgrounds are catered for without discrimination .What i was more surprised about ,is that all these things have been researched and its no surprise to anyone but yet it just seems that is all thats been done .Research upon research upon research to show the poor state of our healthcare system ,I didn't see any concrete effort being done to change the situation.In this case i think health educators are doing a good job educating future health workers in providing them with the information and resources ,so they would in turn be aware of the situation. Like most others my answers were almost the same with a few exceptions.I feel very proud of how incredibly diverse ,I am.My ability to be accepting and have culturally diverse people enrich my life is quite amazing .I enjoy surrounding myself with people that will challenge me ,by pushing me in from my comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteI think this realization of some people not receiving the same health care was shocking to most of us. It is certainly something that I did not know was happening and probably would have learned if it wasn't for this class. I just assumed that despite race and culture, people got the same treatments. I agree with you completely, regulations should be changed and any form of discrimination shouldn't be tolerated.
DeleteLaurencia ,
DeleteI agree with you throughout this course we have seen the presence of disparities validated by both the government and medical community. Some from more than several years ago and yet progress is moving slowly if at all. Before taking this class I was aware of some of this inequality but it seems somehow even less tolerable now knowing that these health/ healthcare differences are common knowledge among those with both the power and moral obligation to act on it.
I agree most of my answers remained the same as well. But I never realized how easy I had it before completing and watching some of the videos throughout the semester. It's sad to see that some people have such a hard time getting something as simple as a visit to the doctor. These issues seem to be getting worse as time goes on, and things do need to be changed to bring equality for everyone.
DeleteFor the final blog post, I retook the cultural diversity self-assessment that we did before for our first blog! Before I took the assessment again, I thought of how much I learned this semester about culture differences in the health spectrum and I myself have learned so much! This time around, I found myself answering either 4's for 5's for each question. During the start of the semester I had a lot of "sometimes" (3's), but now I don't even have one! With the knowledge that I have gained from this class I am extremely confident in talking about, dealing with, and living with culturally diverse people and communities! To continue with my journey of cultural competence, I will make it my goal to be as open minded and caring as possible and to treat everyone equally and fair.
ReplyDeleteMy goal to continue this journey is similar to yours, I need to be more opened minded and upfront about what is going on around me and try to be much more understanding of others values and beliefs.
DeleteYes I agree I with you! I have definitely learnt from this course with the journey of cultural interactions to make it my goal to be open minded and also try to be as helpful as possible in preventing cultural barriers. Everyone should feel comfortable and be treated equally regardless of their background.
DeleteAfter completing the Cultural Diversity Self-Assessment for the second time, I have come realize that I was blind and unaware of many things before this class. I have more knowledge and a better understanding of the difficulties in communication between ethnicities and how their cultures, religions, beliefs and traditions impact the way they are treated in the health care environment. One question that I feel I could now answer more appropriately was “I believe there are policies and practices in place that negatively impact people outside the majority culture”. The first time I took this assessment I had written down a 2 but after taking this course, I now see that this is an extremely important and urgent matter that needs to be fixed in practices like health care to make sure that no race or culture is negatively treated. An area where I would love to receive even more knowledge is how health is affected when multiculturalism is evaluated from a more social impact. In this class we talked a lot about multiculturalism and how it affects people in health care, but I would like to know more about the social setting. For example how it affects colleges, grammar schools, and other social groups and if there is a connection there between that and health. I plan on continuing my journey of cultural competence by opening my eyes more towards what is truly going on around me. Instead of keeping my mouth shut when I see someone being treated differently, I am going to try and speak up and do the right thing. Health is very important to me and although I graduate in May under Communication, I pan to go back for a second bachelors in Health Education. I have already taken many different health courses at WSU and find myself very passionate about it. I want to one day share my knowledge to help prevent all the issues we have covered in the future.
ReplyDelete-Andrea D
It was interesting to take this self-assessment again because I feel that I have a littel bit clearer view of how racism still silently happens in todays world. I dont feel that my attitude has changed too much in the sense that I still appreciate different cultures and the differences we as humans have from each other, that I will always value. I do think that over the past semester I have learned that stereotypes and racism are still a huge problem today.
ReplyDeleteAn area that I think I have more knowledge in is the area of cultural competence in healthcare. I never really thought about this until this course, probably because I never had to deal with it myself. There is clearly a lack of cultural competence in our healthcare system. One thing that stands out for me is when we read that African American heart patients are given less effective medications. I cant believe we have come this far and are still this unequal. This topic really makes me sad, especially when it comes to something so critical as a persons health. Even going to your doctors office, for some people,can be a very difficult time. I would still like to have more knowledge in this area, because there is still a lot I dont know.
Last week I saw a guest speaker at Worcester State, his name was Domnigo Guyton and the topic he spoke on was called "The N Word, From Slavery to Hip Hop". This event, along with Domingo were very inspiring. I always thought that if myself and my friends made stereotypical jokes about each other (and we were all ok with it) then we were not doing any harm but what we were really doing is setting this movement of equality back, and that is not ok.
I think my current assessment shows that I am still aware of my strengths and weaknesses in the area of diversity and I continue to try to improve myself, but that I am more aware of how racism and stereotypes are affecting our world and our healthcare system and our people of different races/cultures. Aside from fully understanding why these jookes are not ok and the effect it may have on people, I dont think there were any other differences between this and my first assessment.
I think that knowledge is a journey and there is always more to learn and as long as we remain open minded, we will learn new things. To continue my journey of cultural competence I plan to continue to read articles that relate to this. I will contiue to meet and engage with new people and people from different cultures because we also teach others by doing, and hopefully someone may learn something from me.
My husband is a high school teacher - he always says that racism is alive and well, but it may be more dangerous than ever, it's secret and hiding, not so bold and obvious as was the case years ago. I also appreciated this class for opening up my view to some areas where discrimination is evident in health.
DeleteI did not note much change between my first and second self assessments. I still try to be mindful of any preconceived opinions or beliefs I may hold . I will continue to challenge myself to be honest about my perceptions. I agree with Danielle about the lifelong journey this is and how it requires ongoing self education , reflection and engagement. I will also be taking a couple of sociology and psychology courses over the next two semesters and hopefully will continue in understand more in this area.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have completed the self-assessment again, my answers generally were the same, but did not get stuck when thinking about certain questions as I did the first time. I have realized that I have it much easier than others do. Throughout this semester we talked about how others are treated and disrespected on a daily basis just by the way they look. After going about each discussion, I have gained deeper knowledge on the hardships people have to overcome every day. People don’t realize the culturally diversity in America is what makes it so great, yet people get denied simple healthcare because they may not be white. In regards to question 2 “I can honestly assess my strengths and weaknesses in the area of diversity and try to improve myself”, I think that after taking this class I have improved tremendously in improving my knowledge of cultural diversity. With the education I have learned in this class over a 10 week or so time period I have learned many new things that will only benefit me for the future. One thing that I need to do for the future is to speak up when others around be are being harassed or bullied.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I agree with you my answers were generally the same too. I also found myself not having to spend a lot of time on the questions now that I understand them more. Yes, a lot of us need to speak up more when we witnessing someone being harassed myself included.
DeleteI also came to the realization that as a white person I have it far easier than others and its something I guess I mostly take for granted because I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what a privilege it is. I too hope to find courage to speak up on behalf of people of diverse culture when I see something that isn't right. I find it so easy as a teacher to model for young children how to respect and stand up for each other regardless of their differences, yet it comes less naturally to me with adults.
DeleteI have to admit that after completing the cultural diversity self assessment for a second time, I did not see much of a difference between the number scores I gave myself the first time around and now. There are some areas where I see a slight improvement in my cultural competence, for example: I can honestly assess my strengths and weaknesses in the area of diversity and try to improve myself, I changed from a 3 to a 5; and I do not make assumptions about a person or individual group until I have verified the facts on my own, also went from a 3 to a 5. I do feel that now having been in this course for almost a whole semester, I do have much greater insight into healthcare experiences of other cultures and ethnicities and have more knowledge about the disparities that exist in healthcare. Some of the questions in the assessment involve speaking up for other cultures or connecting to people who are different from me, and as I completed the assessment a second time I thought about whether my answers were based on my discomfort in other cultures or simply my wariness of new social situations in general. When I first answered these questions I felt kind of guilty for feeling that I wasn't doing my part to actively seek out people who were different from me, but then I thought about any knew situation I am in and I don't think I actively seek out anyone, regardless of there ethnicity. I am an extreme introvert and I am honestly not overly friendly to anyone I first meet and lots of social situations can make me uncomfortable, regardless of the cultural components. Sort of off topic but anyway, I feel as though many of the components of this course have opened my eyes to what it can be like for other minority cultures and ethnicities, and I think what I have learned in this course will help me to stay open minded and judgment free of all humans.
ReplyDeleteHi Sally E, I am glad that you don't make assumptions about other people. Well said, because what you might assume about a person might not be what it is.
DeleteThe first time I took the self assessment test, I got a score of 120. However, when I took it the second time, I got a score of 130. I wasn't surprised about the differences between my scores since I've been through some racial things myself. I thought people around the college level would be more open minded when it comes to different cultures but I'm glad that there is a course like this being taught at the college because I think one of the major problems about cultural competence is that not a lot of people realizes that it does happens. This class encourages me to go out and be careful with my behavior as well as being an advocate for others behaviors. I have developed a great deal of cultural competence working in the health field and throughout my college career. However, after taking this course I realize that none of my previous classes focused on the inequalities and injustices that exist in health care. Therefore, I found this course to be very interesting and informative. I have gained new knowledge that I look forward to in sharing with other colleagues and in my life style. I am also glad I took this class, I enjoyed every bit of it.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, my numbers have remained the same. However, I can definitely say altogether that my opinion and views have definitely opened up. I have found many of my classmate's posts very mind opening and inspirational. Seeing the problems so many face is so sad and makes me just want to be more helpful and informative to society. It very saddening to see that some people can not get proper health treatment because of a health barrier and it has made me more annoyed that we can not help them out by providing more translation services. Overall, I have had decent score and have been open minded however this course really gave me another viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteBetween my prior assessment and my present one, I have not noted a significant change. I have very strong beliefs when it comes to racism and stereotypes. I have improved in some areas, however. When overhearing someone make a derogatory comment, I always ask for clarification, and try to understand why they said it, and why they believe it is justified. Similar to my prior assessment, I noted that I do not exclude others, however, everyone has their own perceptions and opinions, which they are entitled to. I admittedly have followed some stereotypes, mainly devaluing gender roles, however, I have shown improvement and have changed my beliefs. I have learned that stereotypes are there to generalize people, and devalue them in ways. I try to avoid stereotypes at all costs, and not make any assumptions of others based on physical aspects.
ReplyDeleteAs someone with a job where I have to constantly be considering these issues 8 hours a day 5 days a week, my score has not changed much, but I feel like I have more tools and better ways to express myself in certain situations. Often, trying to explain a complex benefits package to a person who came from a country with socialized healthcare is a lot like teaching physics to a fourth grader. Some of the information and discussions we have had along the way in this class have helped me to think about things in new ways. I also appreciate some of the opinions and stories that my classmates have shared, particularly in regards to the experiences with the healthcare system. Some share very personal and intimate stories, and I appreciate all of your honesty and frankness.
ReplyDelete