In recent years, war, climate change, and political disruptions have led to population upheavals throughout the world. People are arriving in the U.S. seeking political asylum and a better lifestyle. Often, people arriving from other countries have fled political persecution, poverty, and tremendous disruptions in their native countries. They may be in poor health, with very limited resources.

Learning about health equity creates respect for people from different cultures and lifestyles. It helps healthcare providers understand and relate to cultural differences and tailor care to best meet the needs of diverse populations. It can help us identify and overcome our own unconscious biases and how biases can affect patient care.

COVID-19 created immense inequities, widened income disparities, and fractured systems of global cooperation. The pandemic enabled those with money and power to expand their influence. The fact that high-income countries reserved enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to vaccinate their own population multiple times over is a stark indication of power asymmetry in global health (Abimbola et al., 2021). 

We have yet to truly understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted or reversed progress in healthcare and shortened life expectancy. With 90% of countries reporting disruptions to essential health services, a decade of progress in reproductive health, maternal, and child health could be stalled or reversed (UN, 2021).

Sustaining the effects of training requires changes in policy and the support of organizational leaders. At the moment, we are facing an unprecedented attempt to halt health equity and cultural competency training. Public health agencies and organizations that have led the fight to improve health equity are being gutted. We have yet to see the impact of these changes on healthcare policy.

It is clear that promoting health equity and cultural competence has a positive impact on healthcare services. To have real success, as individuals and organizations, we must fight to keep health equity training in the forefront of our attempts to improve healthcare service in the United States.