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The CultureVision Newsletter is a publication of the Office for Institutional Equity
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CultureVision Newsletter                                                                      Vol. 15
Rebecca Quinones is a Physical Therapist who sees patients at Lenox Baker Children's Hospital, as a board certified pediatric clinical specialist in pediatric physical therapy, Rebecca focuses on the rehabilitation needs of children with a wide variety of medical diagnoses. Rebecca also serves as an Educator/Facilitator for Duke Health’s Empathy, Belonging and Cultural Education Program. 

During a conversation with Rebecca, I asked about her role and passion for diversity and inclusion in the context of healthcare. She shared her experience and passion around the area of diversity and inclusion, which also included Culture Vision™, an online digital resource that serves as a cultural and language bridge between patients and their providers. Below is an outline of our discussion.
—Dr. Bob Crouch, Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Duke University Office for Institutional Equity 

1. How long have you been devoted to diversity, inclusion (D&I) and culturally competent healthcare in the work space and why is this work important to you?  

I began working with children with disabilities as a pediatric physical therapist in 2007. Throughout my schooling, I was drawn to topics that highlighted people of differing abilities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives from my own. As a child growing up in the city of Chicago, I was lucky to live in a very diverse community where I attended school with children from a variety of backgrounds. Having friends from many different ethnic groups allowed me to ask questions, experience new traditions and rituals, and gain a basic understanding that even when we are very different from someone in some ways, we also often have similarities. I believe that this early experience has played a large role in my later interest in diversity and inclusion.
After leaving this rich environment and heading off to college, I realized how lucky I was to have experienced growing up the way I did. Not everyone I met had previous opportunities to meet and learn from others who were different from themselves. Not everyone was comfortable doing so. This realization helped me to be more committed to expanding my understanding of people that were different from me, and now, as a mother, it has increased my resolve to help my children embrace diversity and inclusion as well. Starting my career as a healthcare worker, I was already committed to diversity and inclusion, but I quickly learned that this was vitally important in order to provide culturally competent care to my patients.  Without acknowledging that everyone has differences that influence their experience in the medical environment, I can miss opportunities to learn and connect with my patients, which ultimately may help us to optimize their outcomes and provide them with the best care possible. Read more here.
Rebecca Quinones, DPT,  Physical Therapist at Lenox Baker Children's Hospital
Patient Citizens, Immigrant Mothers: Mexican Women, Public Prenatal Care, and the Birth Weight Paradox

Overview

"According to the Latina health paradox, Mexican immigrant women have less complicated pregnancies and more favorable birth outcomes than many other groups, in spite of socioeconomic disadvantage. Alyshia Gálvez provides an ethnographic examination of this paradox. What are the ways that Mexican immigrant women care for themselves during their pregnancies? How do they decide to leave behind some of the practices they bring with them on their pathways of migration in favor of biomedical approaches to pregnancy and childbirth?" Source
In just 3 minutes you can learn to navigate the CultureVision site with ease using the new instructional video guide. 
Evil Eye Protection

Steps are often taken to protect oneself and one’s children from the Evil Eye, often in the form of amulets. In Russian culture, red threads are placed in the crib or stroller of children.  A special prayer in Greek culture is used to treat the Evil Eye, while in Latino cultures, the body of the affected may be swept with a mixture of eggs, lemons, and bay leaves.
A culture-bound syndrome is a broad rubric that encompasses certain behavioral, affective, and cognitive manifestations seen in specific cultures. Culture-bound syndromes are generally limited to specific societies or culture areas and are localized, folk, diagnostic categories that frame coherent meanings for certain repetitive, patterned, and troubling sets of experiences and observations.

Learn more about this and other culture-bound syndromes by visiting CultureVision.com.
Many healthcare organizations are integrating patient centered care and cultural competence practices into their day-to-day accountabilities and operations. Entities such as the Office of Minority Health (OMH), National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and the National Association of Social Workers have sets of guidelines that specifically address the need to provide culturally competent care to patients.  Providing organization-wide access to CultureVisionTM and promoting usage of it as a part of your cultural competence initiatives and trainings can help you and your organization or team meet these guidelines. Examples of such guidelines include: 

OMH National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
  • “Provide effective, equitable, understandable and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy and other communication needs.” o “Educate and train governance, leadership and workforce in culturally and linguistically appropriate policies and practices on an ongoing basis.”
NCQA Multicultural Health Care Distinction Standards and Guidelines
  • MCH 4 “Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services and Programs: the organization continually improves its services to meet the needs of multicultural populations.”
 

Duke University Institutional Statement of Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion


Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas- an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.
Office for Institutional Equity
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