Getting beyond diversity as usual: Expanding cultural competence to address religious differences

While many health care quality improvement programs cover the importance of integrating cultural competency, these efforts have primarily focused on providing language access and translation services.  However, true cultural competency involves an understanding of the contexts and identities that shape a patient’s life and health choices, such as race, national origin, educational and socio-economic background, and especially religion – the largest component of culture and a core element of personal identity. 
As healthcare facilities nationwide see increasingly diverse populations of employees and patients from a vast array of religious traditions, knowing something about a patient's religious background can give healthcare providers important information about appropriate treatment.  This intensive training session will fill this gap by providing participants with tools and resources they need to address patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs into their care, thereby more effectively serving diverse populations and reducing disparities. 
Participants will begin with a self-assessment where they will consider their own religious (or non-religious) orientation, their levels of acceptance and understanding of religion in the workplace, and their views on integrating religion and patient care.  The participants will then examine the mix of trends fueling the upswing in religious diversity across the U.S. and divide into small groups to analyze case studies that illustrate how understanding religious needs makes a concrete difference in care, and how religious beliefs often guide a patient’s health choices. 
Participants will review examples of how different religious beliefs can affect healthcare decisions.  Examples will cover some of the more common religions found in the U.S. (such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Afro-Caribbean traditions, and Asian religions) and issues that often arise in healthcare settings (i.e., impact of the religious calendar, dietary needs, how various traditions approach specific life cycle events including child birth and end-of-life, as well as attire and issues of modesty).  This segment will include interactive activities such as pairs exercises and quizzes to help participants learn about various religious symbols or objects they might encounter in a healthcare setting.  In addition, participants will review the religious spectrum within traditions and the wide range of beliefs and practices even among those of the same faith.  Also, participants will learn about the non-religious patient and how to address religion while being respectful of atheists and agnostics.
Finally, participants will practice communication tools including active listening and discuss how to diminish barriers to healing and recovery by asking patients the right questions about their religious needs.  In small groups, attendees will brainstorm ideas of how to take a spiritual assessment and share their assessment tool with the larger group.  To gain further hands-on experience, attendees will participate in a sample patient exercise where they will be asked to assume the role of a member of a treatment team for a fictitious patient and use information provided to explore ways of dealing with the patient’s issues in a religiously and culturally sensitive manner. 
Take-home materials will include a best practices checklist to help attendees begin the process of putting religious diversity into practice in their own healthcare facilities.