For healthcare providers, the key to bonding with patients is to have a greater awareness of cultural differences.
The more you know about your patient’s culture, the easier it is for them to feel comfortable—with you and their treatment. You don’t want to lose a patient because you said something that you didn’t even know was offensive or that was simply mistaken for meaning something else.
In Pulling Wisdom: Filling the Gaps of Cross-Cultural Communication for Healthcare Providers, Dr. Cathy Hung shares tips for seeing beyond cultural stereotypes, raising your cultural competency, and bridging the communication gaps between you and your patients to improve your practice success. She also introduces concepts and tools such as The Amalgamation Scale, which can predict and assess potential obstacles based on the cultural and language barriers between provider and patient.