Target Audience: Health care professionals and allied staff who have first hand contact with diverse patients and their families.
Format: This topic is available as either a keynote/general session talk, break-out session, or half-day workshop. The primary difference between the three is the amount of detail and audience participation.
Program Benefits:
- Increased patient compliance and recovery rates
- Increased health care staff satisfaction and comfort with diverse patients and their families
- Improved word-of-mouth “advertising” within diverse communities and, therefore, increased market share
Customization: Prior to the offering of any program, Dr. Thiederman will make every effort to hone the presentation – through client-specific examples – so that it speaks directly to the needs and expectations of the group. In addition, focus will be on those specific cultures with which the audience most frequently comes in contact.
Client Description: (This description is designed to aid the client in his or her decision-making process. Specific content may vary according to client needs and/or the development of new material.)
At no time in the history of this nation has competition for patients been more intense and the diversity of the population more widespread. If we add to this the fact that close-knit immigrant communities provide wonderful opportunities for positive word-of-mouth, it becomes imperative that we take culture and language differences into account when designing our patient care strategies.
Intended to engage and motivate while providing immediately-applicable tools, the program covers:
- When it is appropriate to acknowledge and take into consideration cultural and other types of differences.
- How biases can interfere with effective patient care.
- Varying cultural attitudes toward patient responsibility as it pertains to the health care process.
- Varying attitudes toward time and punctuality and their relationship to compliance.
- Alternative medical beliefs and how to handle those beliefs.
- Cultural variations in the response to pain.
- How to identify what all cultures share and use this knowledge as a spring board to relate to people of all backgrounds.
- (Optional): Skills for communicating in the face of language and accent barriers.
Each presentation consists of a strategic balance of data, workplace examples, personal anecdotes, audience involvement, and humor. This approach is designed to create both cognitive and emotional receptivity within the audience by diffusing discomfort, communicating respect, and demonstrating the practical importance of the material.
Note: Programs are also available on how to manage a diverse health care staff or, as an alternative, the topics of diverse patients and diverse staff can be combined into one presentation.
Promotional Description: (This description is for use in the meeting brochure or other program promotion.)
One of the joys of working in health care today is the opportunity it provides to interact with patients and families of a wide-variety of cultural backgrounds. At the same time, however, these differences can create challenges for even the most seasoned health care professional. From differing ideas of patient responsibility to large extended families to varying responses to pain to language issues, delivering care across cultural lines can be as taxing as it is exhilarating. This interactive and entertaining program seeks to tip the balance from “taxing” to “exhilarating” by providing specific tools and knowledge for bridging the kinds of cultural differences that are most often found within your patient population.
