subject: The Benefits Of Having A Multicultural Team Of Pharmacists [print this page] Today, multiculturalism has become an important element of our society. Cities, town, and small rural communities, are now much more culturally diverse. The impact of multiculturalism has been felt across most industries, including the medical industry. One profession where the use of multicultural teams has become essential is Pharmacy.
Pharmacists are one group of medical professionals that are working directly with the community, especially those pharmacists that work in retail pharmacy, hospitals, and community health organizations. The strategic importance of a multicultural team of pharmacists with diverse cultural backgrounds not only benefits the community, but also the pharmacy team.
There are a number of benefits to having a multicultural team of pharmacists serving a community. A diverse team offers a variety of different ideas and thoughts that can result in better health care solutions. That is, the unique cultural backgrounds of a team of pharmacists can better identify and resolve problems. How each pharmacist assesses and analyzes a situation can result in bringing in fresh, new, and innovative ideas which allows others to gain different perspectives. The outcome is improved service to the community.
Another important benefit to having a multicultural team of pharmacists is the positive impact it has on the community. The diversity of each community needs to be represented so that the individuals in the community can be better served. As well, patients from various cultural backgrounds will be better understood by a pharmacist that knows their cultural background in such areas as language, customs, beliefs, etc. Pharmacists need to understand their multicultural patients in order to give them the best quality health care.
A diverse multicultural pharmacy team provides a broad range of perspectives on a variety health issues. As well, it provides the ability to better understand all members of the community in terms of their thoughts and meanings. As well, there is increased creativity within the pharmacy team that better generates problem solving ideas with more alternatives to finding solutions which ultimately leads to better decisions. The team therefore becomes more productive and effective which improves patient care. Having a wider range of diverse perspectives, experiences, and worldviews to draw upon can only benefit the pharmacy team and the community. The more diverse the members of the pharmacy team, the more reliable and effective the knowledge base will be.
In this time of increasingly more diverse communities all over the country, all health care groups are now recognizing the importance of cultural awareness and sensitivity in their particular medical fields. Today, the medical industry, which includes the field of pharmacy, is taking advantage of cross cultural training to teach a diverse group of professionals to understand each other as well as working together. This promotes excellent communication skills, respect and proper pharmacy services that meet the demands of all members of the community. The result is a more creative multicultural professional health care team that provides the best possible care to each individual in the community.
