You are part of a team at Mercy hospital that is addressing cultural competency issues. Your group just learned that your community will have its first wave of Syrian refugees coming in the next few months. Over 150 refugees are expected. Currently the community does not have any Syrian families. This will be a brand new experience for your community, your staff, you, and the hospital.

Develop a plan that will address the following:

1. Suggestions for “educating” your faculty/staff concerning the Syrian culture, how that culture is different from ours, and the types of experiences these families might have encountered in the community.
2. Suggestions for coping with the challenges these families will present to facilities in the community and to the hospital during the upcoming year.
3. Suggestions for ways to capitalize on this “opportunity” to engage the staff/community in discussions concerning the following:
   1. Becoming culturally competent (aware and knowledgeable of other cultures)
   2. Benefits of having others “not like us” in our midst
   3. How this experience increases our individual/collective worth in contributing to a globalize world (begin with defining the phrase “culturally competent”)
   4. Providing culturally appropriate and sensitive care to peoples from other cultures.