Cultural competencies of selected health care workers in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship

Introduction:
The cultural competence of health care workers has a major impact on the quality of medical care provided. They are gained by developing awareness of one’s own beliefs, feelings, and thoughts in such a way as to eliminate their inappropriate nature and impact on people from other backgrounds, accept and respect cultural differences, and provide care according to the cultural expectations of the patient. The main goal was to assess the cultural competence of health care workers from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Material and methods:
In the presented study, responses from 206 healthcare workers were analysed, including nurses, midwives, doctors, psychotherapists, receptionists, medical secretaries, physiotherapists, and psychologists. It was performed using the standardised Cross-Cultural Competence Inventory (CCCI) and the author’s questionnaire.

Results:
The surveyed medical workers had a medium level of cultural competence. Analysis of the data showed that older respondents had statistically significantly higher levels of competence in the domains of Determination and Willingness to Engage, while younger respondents, in the Tolerance domain (p > 0.05). Respondents from the largest cities had significantly higher cultural competence in the domains of Cultural Adaptability and Mission than residents of smaller towns and rural areas (p > 0.05). Those who spoke more than 2 foreign languages had significantly higher general cultural competence than the rest of the respondents (p > 0.05). People going abroad scored significantly higher (p < 0.05) on the domains of Cultural Adaptability and Determination than those not travel-ing outside Poland (p > 0.05).

Conclusions:
The surveyed healthcare workers had cultural competence at a moderate level. Older people were more confident and able to cope with stress in cross-cultural interactions, while younger ones were more tolerant. Higher levels of cultural competence were associated with living in a large city, knowing foreign languages, and traveling.