Teaching Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility in Dental Medicine

Abstract

Dental students need to be equipped as clinicians to treat diverse communities and to recognize oral health disparities that are rooted in the social determinants of health. Library instruction is frequently focused on information literacy topics. Within the health sciences this might include critical appraisal or evidence synthesis, and instruction centered on locating and using library resources. This paper details the unique experiences of two liaison librarians to the School of Dental Medicine who taught the topics of cultural competence and cultural humility to first-year dental medicine students. While the authors do not discuss typical information literacy instruction in this paper, they share strategies used to design the instruction sessions, reflections on teaching these themes, lessons learned, and suggestions for other liaison librarians who might have an interest in teaching about cultural competence or cultural humility.

Keywords:

• Cultural competence
• cultural humility
• dental medicine
• library instruction
• liaison librarianship

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the graciousness of Dr. Christopher Kypuros, Senior Director of Professionalism, Inclusion and Student Finance, for allowing them to teach in his course.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xan Y. Goodman

Xan Y. Goodman, MLIS ([email protected]) is a Health Sciences Librarian at Lied Library, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 South Maryland Pkwy., Box 457014, Las Vegas, NV 89154 USA.

Ruby L. Nugent

Ruby Nugent, MA, LIS ([email protected]) is the Dental Medicine Liaison Librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Health Sciences Library, School of Medicine InfoCommons 308B, 1001 Shadow Lane, Las Vegas, NV 89106 USA.