AWARENESS KNOWLEDGE OF CULTURAL SENSITIVITY AND COMPETENCE AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN MADONNA UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL
Abstract
Every society has its ownculture or ways of doingthings- these are learnedpatterns of
thoughts andbehavior whichmakes a particular social groupdistinct fromthe others. The
aimof the study is to determine the level of awareness andknowledge of cultural sensitivity
andcompetence amonghealthworkers inMUTH. Hospital baseddescriptive study was used.
The study populationconsist of healthcare professionals selectedfromMadonna
University TeachingHospital, Elele Rivers State. Withinthe time frame of 3weeks, a total of
45healthworkers participatedinthe study andall of themgave consent for the study so the
study rate was 100%. Ahigher fractionof the healthworkers that participatedinthe study
were older than30years (73.3%), female (62.2%) andmarried(66.7%). Fromthe data
collected, 28.9% of the study participants were Igbos, 20.0% Ikwerre, 15.6% Ogoni and17.8%
Ijaws, 6.7% Yoruba, 2.1% Hausa and8.9% others consultants. Occupationdata shows that
51.1% were nurses, 31.1% Doctors, 11.1% social workers and6.7% healthvisitor. Across some
dimensions, amajority of participants hadknowledge as regards cultural sensitivity. 40% of
the study participants knewthe meaningof cultural sensitivity. Fromthe data collected,
44.4% agreedwithincludingcultural assessment whencarryingout client or family
evaluation, 42.2% seek informationoncultural needs whenidentifyingnewclients and
families, 20% recommendedresource books andother materials available to helplearnabout
clients andfamilies fromdifferent cultures.
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