Health Through Another's Eyes: Why Culture Matters in Healthcare

What learning about cultural competence is teaching me about understanding the person behind the patient.

What does it mean to be healthy?

At first, this seems like a relatively simple question.

But the more I learn about healthcare, the more interesting the question becomes, because our understanding of health, illness and healing isn't shaped by biology alone.

It can also be shaped by our culture, family, community, spirituality, history, environment and lived experience.

What feels like an obvious approach to health from one perspective may look completely different from another.

Learning about cultural competence in healthcare has made me realise that understanding these differences isn't an optional extra in caring for people.

It is part of understanding the person.

We don't all understand health in the same way

Healthcare professionals inevitably bring their own worldview into an interaction.

So do patients.

Our experiences can influence what we believe caused an illness, when we decide to seek help, who we trust for advice, which treatments feel acceptable and what being “well” actually means to us.

For some people, health may be understood predominantly through a biomedical lens.

For others, health may be inseparable from family, community, spirituality, Country, traditional knowledge or connection with the natural world.

Neither practitioner nor patient enters the room without a history.

Recognising that is an important starting point.

What is cultural competence?

Cultural competence in healthcare involves developing the awareness, knowledge and skills needed to communicate and work effectively with people whose cultural backgrounds and experiences may differ from our own.

But one of the most valuable things I'm learning is that cultural competence cannot simply mean memorising information about different groups of people.

Culture is not a checklist.

Two people who share the same cultural background may hold completely different beliefs, values and preferences.

Assuming we understand someone because we have learned something about their culture can simply create another kind of stereotype.

Instead, cultural competence asks us to become more aware of our own assumptions, remain curious about the person in front of us and create space for them to explain what matters to them.

From cultural competence to cultural humility

This leads to another idea I particularly like: cultural humility.

There is something quite powerful about acknowledging that we cannot become an expert in another person's lived experience.

A practitioner can learn about different cultures, histories and health beliefs, but ultimately the patient remains the expert on themselves.

Cultural humility therefore asks us to keep learning.

To listen.

To recognise our own biases.

To be comfortable asking respectful questions rather than assuming we already know the answer.

For me, this changes the relationship from:

“I understand your culture.”

to:

“Help me understand what is important to you.”

That feels like a very different conversation.

Cultural safety

Another important concept is cultural safety.

Culturally safe healthcare goes beyond the intentions of the practitioner and considers how care is actually experienced by the person receiving it.

A practitioner may believe they have been respectful, but it is ultimately the patient's experience that tells us whether an interaction felt culturally safe.

This requires us to think about power within healthcare relationships as well.

Who is speaking?

Who is being listened to?

Whose knowledge is considered legitimate?

Does the person feel comfortable asking questions or disagreeing?

Do they feel respected and able to participate in decisions about their own care?

These questions have made me think about healthcare in a much broader way.

Different traditions of healing

One of the aspects of this subject I find particularly fascinating is the diversity of healing traditions around the world.

Humans were caring for one another long before the development of modern healthcare systems.

Across cultures we find traditions involving plants, food, touch, movement, ceremony, spirituality, community and relationships with the natural environment.

Modern biomedicine has given us extraordinary tools for understanding and treating disease. At the same time, traditional knowledge continues to hold enormous cultural significance for communities around the world.

Respecting cultural perspectives doesn't mean assuming that every traditional practice is scientifically established or medically appropriate.

Nor should evidence-based healthcare require us to dismiss the cultural and spiritual meaning a practice may hold for someone.

I think there is room for a more thoughtful question:

How can we respect different ways of understanding health while also providing safe, evidence-informed care?

Listening before treating

This subject has also made me think differently about what it means to practice holistically.

It is easy to describe holistic healthcare as considering someone's physical, emotional and mental health.

But if we stop there, perhaps we are still missing something.

A person's culture, relationships, community, spirituality, identity, history and connection to place can all be part of their experience of health.

If we genuinely want to understand the whole person, we have to be willing to understand the world they live within.

Sometimes that may begin with something remarkably simple:

asking rather than assuming.

What I hope to carry into practice

I'm still at the beginning of learning what culturally responsive healthcare looks like in practice.

I don't expect cultural competence to be something I can eventually tick off as ‘completed’.

In fact, perhaps the opposite is true.

The more people we encounter, the more opportunities there are to discover that our own way of seeing health is only one perspective.

As I continue studying naturopathy and exploring different approaches to health and healing, this is something I hope to carry with me:

Good healthcare requires knowledge of the human body. Caring for a person also requires curiosity about the human being who lives within it.

And sometimes the most respectful thing we can bring to that relationship is not another answer, but the willingness to listen.

Herb & Ritual shares my learning as a naturopathy student for general educational purposes. These reflections are not intended to represent the experiences or beliefs of any particular cultural group, nor are they a substitute for appropriate cultural guidance, professional healthcare or individual medical advice.