HSHPS is committed to developing and enhancing cultural competency. We believe that it is a life-long commitment and an on-going process to better understand ourselves and others in order to communicate and work effectively across cultures. As we are all cultural beings who possess multiple identities, including but not limited to race and ethnicity, sex and gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, religious affiliation, and socioeconomic status, understanding how our own identities and others' intersect is critical to developing cultural competency.
Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations. Cultural competence in health care is being sensitive to issues related to culture, race, gender, sexual orientation, social class and economic situation. HSHPS hopes to provide opportunities to learn about various aspects of diversity and develop tools that are applicable to working within our complex and multicultural health care system.
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