Culture, Religion, and Family-Centred Care

Abstract

Paediatric family-centred care is an innovative approach to care that can lead to improved health outcomes and quality care. However, gaps continue to exist in the realization of this potential, particularly where issues of cultural diversity are involved. Cultural diversity is frequently identified as a barrier or challenge in implementing family-centred care. Literature on health disparities and family-centred care, although limited, shows that racially and culturally diverse families are less likely to report receiving family-centred care than their white counterparts. This chapter explores paediatric family-centred care through the lens of religious and cultural diversity. Cultural competence is generally recognized as an approach to understand and integrate the patient’s and family’s cultural needs into care. While family-centred care and cultural competence are very synergistic approaches to care, family-centred does not necessarily lead to effective integration of culture into care.

In this chapter, I have argued that the paradigm shift of collaboration and partnership can be greatly facilitated through a more deliberate understanding and integration of cultural competence in the paediatric family-centred care agenda. This will not only begin to address the perception of “cultural diversity as barrier” to effective collaboration, but also allow for a deeper understanding of why clinicians and care environments continue to experience difficulties in understanding and supporting paediatric family-centred care overall. Frameworks for cultural competence highlight that transformation in care not only requires awareness and attitudinal shifts, but also supports through new skills, tools and resources. Reframing our conceptual understanding of family-centred care and its associated competencies through the lens of cultural competence offers considerable promise. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of strategies to integrate cultural competence into paediatric family-centred care.