By Anna Horner | News & Views

Cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation (CR/PR) professionals should make an effort to understand different cultures and recognize common misconceptions that could unintentionally impact the care they provide to patients. It is important that they strive to provide culturally competent care that respects the diversity of patient populations in terms of beliefs, language and communication styles in an effort to reduce health disparities.

For example, says Hayder Abduljabber, language services supervisor at Mayo Clinic, “The Arab world is full of rich and diverse communities and groups. Differences exist not only among countries, but within countries as well.” He explains that Arabic is the dominant language in the 22 Arab countries; and while Islam is the dominant religion, these countries are religiously and ethnically diverse. According to Abduljabbar, it is important to understand that being an Arab is a cultural trait, just like being an American.

Abduljabbar also notes the potential gap of cultural differences between American/Western culture and Arab culture in relation to patient care in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. To provide culturally competent care to this patient population, he says CR and PR professionals must recognize and dispel common misconceptions about Arab men and women and about the Arab world as a whole.

CR and PR professionals, he advises, should get familiar with the major concerns and challenges in Arab communities; recognize how the delivery of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programming may be affected by Arab cultural beliefs; and learn about appropriate nutritional and exercise recommendations for the Arab patient population. “Cultural competence is the skill of interacting well with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures,” says Abduljabbar, "and it will help improve the ability of providers to more effectively deliver healthcare services to their Arabic-speaking patients, especially those with limited English proficiency.”