A comparison between UK and US medical student attitudes towards cultural diversity

Abstract

The views that students hold about cultural diversity and its teaching have been investigated to a limited extent in the UK and North America. The objective of this study was to establish whether there is a difference in attitudes between UK and US medical students with regard to this issue. A questionnaire survey was carried out on 191 year one medical students at the University of Illinois (Chicago and Urbana campuses) and University of Leicester. Differences of attitudes between students from the two countries and also between the same ethnic groups across the two countries were compared. There were statistically significant differences between UK and US students in each of the key areas of the balance between different cultures, attitudes of doctors and their practice relating to cultural diversity, culture and its associations with race/skin colour, perspectives on specific cultures and attitudes towards diversity teaching. There were some similarities in how students define culture but differences in how they understand multiculturalism. These findings suggest that programmes need to be tailored to particular circumstances, and that complex models of diversity need to be utilized in order for students to engage with them in a substantive way.