Cultural competency education in the medical curriculum to overcome health care disparities

Abstract

Background

Our increasingly diverse population demands the adoption of transcultural approaches to health care delivery. Training courses in medical education have been developed across the country for cultural competency, but have not been standardized or incorporated consistently. This study sought to formulate an educational intervention in medical training using the concepts of cultural competency and humility to improve understanding of cultural disparities in health care.

Methods

This study used three domains of Tools for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (TACCT) by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Participants included 106 fourth-year medical students and 19 internal medicine residents at Louisiana State University in Shreveport in 2022. The training session included a lecture introducing cultural and structural competency for 30 minutes followed by three workshops based on the TACCT domains of key aspects of cultural competence, understanding the impact of stereotyping on medical decision-making, and cross-cultural clinical skills. The participants were given a pre- and postsession questionnaire.

Results

After the session, 68% of students rated their understanding of cultural competency as excellent. For methods of teaching—lecture versus workshop versus both—66% rated the combination as excellent.

Conclusion

The rudimentary understanding of cultural competency and cultural humility improved after the session.

Keywords:

• Cultural competency
• cultural humility
• health care disparities

Disclosure statement/Funding

The authors report no funding or conflicts of interest.