Toward Culturally Competent Care
The latest issue of the AMA "Healthcare Professions and Career Education Newsletter" [www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7990.html ] noted the development by the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco of a new teaching module called "Toward Culturally Competent Care". This struck me as a very relevant topic for today's prosthetist-orthotist, particularly in the United States. Having recently moved back to the greater Chicagoland area, I am reminded daily by how many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds make up the mosaic of American life.
More detailed information is available at http://futurehealth.ucsf.edu/cnetwork/resources/curricula/diversity.html. A synopsis of the curriculum from the web site is reprinted below:
Format:
The 170-page curriculum is organized into eleven sections that focus on teaching clinicians to recognize cultural differences in patient interactions and use specific communication skills to improve patient care. The materials organized can be adapted for sequential one-hour sessions or for daylong seminars.
How Will Clinicians Benefit?
This curriculum teaches the skills and knowledge to help health professionals provide culturally competent care. At the end of training, participants will be more effective in eliciting accurate clinical information and providing appropriate care to their patients, regardless of their cultural background. Clinicians also learn how to work with medical interpreters and acquire new approaches to addressing cultural differences.
Curriculum Description
As the U.S. has evolved into a more diverse society, opportunities for misunderstandings in the clinical setting between physician and patient become more likely. In the past decade evidence has linked cultural diversity to disparities among populations in the delivery of medical care and in health outcomes.
This curriculum is a toolbox of materials for teaching culturally competent skills needed for practical day-to-day encounters between clinicians and patients. The goals of the curriculum are to teach participants to recognize when cultural differences exist in patient encounters and to utilize specific communication skills to elicit their patients' cultural perspectives about health and illness. Finally, the curriculum assists clinicians in negotiating with patients to provide appropriate care that is congruent with patients' expectations and preferences.
Learning Objectives
Participants who successfully complete the curriculum will be able to:
- describe how cultural influences shape individual health behavior;
- describe cultural differences that can influence patient-physician relationships;
- discuss how explanations of disease etiology can differ among diverse patients ;
- identify and address cultural barriers that may affect communication in patient-physician relationships;
- employ culturally appropriate questions that effectively elicit patient information in the clinical encounter;
- work effectively with a medical interpreter;
- apply communication techniques to resolve conflicts in culturally sensitive ways.
