The online Foundation Course in Cultural Competency was developed specifically for the registered New Zealand health workforce and provides a basic understanding of cultural competency & health literacy in the New Zealand Health context.

Cultural competence is about the acquisition of skills to achieve a better understanding of members of other cultures’ so that the patient/health care worker relationship is as close and productive as possible and the best possible clinical outcome can be achieved for the patient. Individual values, beliefs, and behaviours about health and well-being are shaped by various factors such as race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, socioeconomic status, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, and occupation.

Cultural competence in health care is broadly defined as the ability of health practitioners to understand and integrate these factors into the delivery of healthcare practice.

This course is delivered online by Mauriora Associates who offer short online training courses. The courses include Cultural Competency and The Treaty of Waitangi and Healthcare.

The course is located on their own website - so you will need to create a free account. Once you have completed the course, you will need to upload a copy of your course completion certificate into the course.

Click HERE to go directly to the course