Thoughts on Cultural Competence

No matter where you work as an OT, you are going to encounter someone from a different culture, or that has different beliefs than you.  While it would be nice to say that every OT should understand the exact differences in every culture that they will encounter, it’s just not possible. So as students, I think that gaining experience in the field will help us learn ways to understand people different than us and how to treat them according to their beliefs, even if they aren’t ours or if we don’t understand them.

Although I am not proud to admit it, I stereotype people, for example, expecting that people from the north act different and maybe even ‘rude’ as opposed to those from the south with ‘southern hospitality’, even though I know many people from the north that are very nice, and lots of people from the south that aren’t. In order to further develop cultural competency and to be a better student/OT, I think it is important to self-reflect and realize any bias/stereotype that I may have of people. I don’t want people to generalize me as an individual based on where I am from/what I believe, and I need to constantly remember to not do the same to others. Cultural competence is extremely important to develop in general, but as OT’s that look at/treat a person holistically, cultural competence is critical.

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