Natural disasters disrupt African American communities in the United States and can exacerbate the degree of poverty for individuals within these communities, necessitating greater aid from local, state, and federal governments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of cultural competence in disaster response serving African American communities. This research study focused on emergency manager's comprehension and education of cultural competence, what they recognized to be vital elements of a culturally competent emergency manager, and what the obstacles and components are to bring about the changes to the profession. This study used a qualitative case study design and a theoretical framework based on the Campinha-Bacote model for care for cultural competence. Study data from interviews with 15 emergency manager practitioners and African American disaster survivors were inductively coded and thematically analyzed. The study produced data regarding cultural competence, values, ethics, beliefs, and thought processes of the participants. The findings showed that the emergency managers and survivors had diverging or contrasting beliefs of the emergency managers' cultural competency levels; this difference in perception was the major theme of the study. The study also concluded that implementing the Campinha-Bacote model for Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services, emergency managers dramatically improve disaster response and recovery efforts not only to the African American community but other diverse minority communities as well. This study contributes to positive social change by helping U.S. emergency managers become more culturally competent and better equipped to serve diverse minority communities during a disaster.

Background Many patients especially from minority backgrounds are typically faced with cultural barriers during health care encounters and this hinders the delivery of culturally competent healthcare. This study seeks to understand how cultural barriers faced by patients are crucial in attaining the delivery of culturally competent healthcare. Aims   The aim of this study is to examine cultural barriers in the delivery of healthcare services from the  patient’s perspective. Method The method is a literature review based on qualitative primary research. Ten articles were selected from the CINAHL, PUBMED and Google scholar databases. All articles selected were published between 2010 and 2020. The quality of the articles used were assessed using a review template for qualitative studies. Data was analysed using the literature review matrix method.  Results The results suggest that four main cultural barriers from the perspectives of patients impacted healthcare delivery. These cultural barriers included the following; communication problems arising during verbal and nonverbal interactions, mistrust and discrimination arising as a result of previous contact with the health care system, socio-economic status and finally low propensity to seek healthcare.  Conclusion   To conclude it is evident that patients face a plethora of cultural barriers during their interactions with health care services and their experiences can be shaped by a number of variables and factors. These cultural challenges hinder accessibility to proper health care services might lead to inequality in the provision of health care services. / Bakgrund Många patienter, särskilt de med minoritetsbakgrund, står vanligtvis inför kulturella barriärer när de blir bemötta av hälso-och sjukvårdspersonal. Detta hindrar utformandet av kulturellt kompetent vård. Studien syftar till att förstå hur kulturella barriärer som patienter står inför är avgörande för att uppnå kulturellt kompetent omvårdnad. Mål Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kulturella barriärer vid leverans av vårdtjänster ur patientens perspektiv. Metod Metoden är en litteraturstudie baserad på kvalitativ primär forskning.Tio artiklar valdes från databaserna CINAHL, PUBMED och Google. Alla utvalda artiklar är publicerade mellan 2010 och 2020. Kvaliteten på de artiklar som valdes är granskade med hjälp av en granskningsmall för kvalitativa studier. Data analyserades med hjälp av litteraturgranskning enligt en matrismetod. Resultat Analysen och resultaten från studien tyder på att fyra huvudsakliga kulturella barrier ur patientens perspektiv hade avgörande inverkan på bemötandet inom vården. Dessa kulturella barriärer inkluderade följande; kommunikationsproblem som uppstår under verbala och icke-verbala interaktionen, misstro och diskriminering till följd av tidigare kontakt med hälso- och sjukvården, socioekonomisk status och slutligen låg benägenhet att söka vård som är vanligt för människor med samma kulturella bakgrund. Slutsats Avslutningsvis är det uppenbart att patienter möter kulturella barriärer under sin interaktion med vården och deras erfarenheter kan formas av ett antal variabler och faktorer. Dessa kulturella utmaningar hindrar adekvat tillgång till hälso sjukvård och kan leda till ojämlikhet i tillgången till hälso- och sjukvårdstjänster.