Culture

Today we discussed culture and how it's important to immerse yourself, as an occupational therapist, in as much culture as you can. Sometimes, without intention, we catch ourselves being racist, bias, or prejudice towards people we don't know. We learned that our society has moved from it's original "cultural acceptance," to "cultural sensitivity," and now to "cultural competence." In general, this means that we have gone from simply accepting and dealing with someone else's culture, to immersing ourselves in that person's culture and working with them to meet a shared goal. It's interesting to see how much our cultural ways have changed over the years, and how different other people's cultures can be from our own. Being open minded and willing to be accept all cultures, different from your own, is important and can be beneficial throughout your OT career.