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Teaching Culturally Appropriate Care: A Review of Educational Models and Methods
Author(s) -
Hobgood Cherri,
Sawning Susan,
Bowen Josie,
Savage Katherine
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1197/j.aem.2006.07.031
Subject(s) - medicine , cultural competence , health care , cultural diversity , nursing , population , medical education , psychology , pedagogy , environmental health , sociology , anthropology , economics , economic growth
The disparities in health care and health outcomes between the majority population and cultural and racial minorities in the United States are a problem that likely is influenced by the lack of culturally competent care. Emergency medicine and other primary‐care specialties remain on the front lines of this struggle because of the nature of their open‐door practice. To provide culturally appropriate care, health care providers must recognize the factors impeding cultural awareness, seek to understand the biases and traditions in medical education potentially fueling this phenomenon, and create a health care community that is open to individuals' otherness, thus leading to better communication of ideas and information between patients and their health care providers. This article highlights the rationale for and current problems in teaching cultural competency and examines several different models implemented to teach and promote cultural competency along the continuum of emergency medicine learners. However, the literature addressing the true efficacy of such programs in leading to long‐lasting change and improvement in minority patients' clinical outcomes remains insufficient.