Cultural humility

Although this From the Editor will be published in the December 2022 issue of WORK , I am writing it early during the autumn season in New England, USA. This is a season when the leaves are turning beautiful shades of red, yellow, and orange; and apples and pumpkins are in abundance. Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in many United States (US) cities. This is a recent official US holiday, however, “there are over 476 million indigenous people living in 90 countries across the world, accounting for 6.2 percent of the global population. Of those, there are more than 5,000 distinct groups” (https://www.un.org/en/fight-racism/vulnerable-groups/indigenous-peoples?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WUC_Monday&utm_term=all_users). Interestingly, the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples doesn’t include a definition of indigenous and states, “ . . . self-identification as indigenous is considered a fundamental criterion. The Declaration refers to their right to determine their own identity or membership in accordance with their customs and traditions” (https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html).

Indigenous People’s Day inspired me to develop a better understanding of cultural humility. Cultural humility is “a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities” (2019, The National Institutes of Health). Khan writes in Cultural Humility vs. Cultural Competence —and Why Providers Need Both how to develop cultural humility: “At its base, cultural humility means opening up a conversation in a way that genuinely attempts to understand a person’s identities related to race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, social needs, and others. An awareness of the self is central to the notion of cultural humility —who a person is informs how they see another. Awareness may stem from self-reflective questions such as:

Which parts of my identity am I aware of? Which are most salient?

Which parts of my identity are privileged and/or marginalized?

How does my sense of identity shift based on context and settings?

What are the parts onto which people project? And which parts are received well, by whom?

What might be my own blind spots and biases?

With this awareness, a provider can ask questions about how they receive the patient: Who is this person, and how do I make sense of them? What knowledge and awareness do I have about their culture? What thoughts and feelings emerge from me about them?” (https://healthcity.bmc.org/policy-and-industry/cultural-humility-vs-cultural-competence-providers-need-both).

The Editor ’ s Choice paper in this issue is The role of resilience in the work-life interface: A systematic review authored by Bernuzzi, Sommovigo and Setti. They share, “Overall, resilience was negatively associated with work-life conflict and positively related to both work-life balance and enrichment. A positive work-life balance can promote resilience, but resilience can also help workers to balance work and life. Additionally, resilience can protect from the negative effects of both work-life imbalance and work-life conflict on workers’ health and job-related outcomes”.

For me, this December 2022 issue provides the opportunity for reflection. In 2022, WORK published over 400 papers that advance the body of knowledge on many important topics such as telehealth, working from home, resilience, workplace nutrition and health program, workplace bullying, ergonomics, work-related musculoskeletal disorders, pain and the impact of COVID-19 on work. My gratitude is extended to the Editorial Board, external reviewers, authors, Lindsey Zousa, the Editor’s Assistant and Axana Scherbeijn at IOS Press.

I conclude this From the Editor while participating in the 66^th Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) International Annual Meeting. Over 1000 people are in attendance in Atlanta, with others participating virtually. It is exciting to be in-person once again. I wish to convey by gratitude for their leadership to the HFES: Immediate-past President Christopher Reed, PhD; President Carolyn M. Sommerich, PhD, CPE, FHFES, and President-Elect Susan Kotowski, PhD.

As always, I welcome hearing from you.

With kind regards,

Karen

Founding Editor, WORK

Occupational therapist & ergonomist

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