A Multi-School Validation of a Revised Scale for Assessing Cultural Competence in Pharmacy Students

Abstract

Objectives. Culturally competence is an essential skill for healthcare providers, including pharmacists.The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education has included training in cultural sensitivity as a requirement in pharmacy education programs. The objective for this study was to revise and validate the Self-Assessment of Perceived Level of Cultural Competence (SAPLCC) instrument within a national sample of pharmacy students. Methods.A cross sectional study design was utilized with a convenience sampling strategy to invite schools across the country to participate in the study. The target population was students enrolled in the A J P E A c c e p t e d D r a f t participating pharmacy programs. Data was collected using the SAPLCC. Exploratory Factor Analysis with principal components extraction and varimax rotation was used to identify the factor structure of the SAPLCC instrument.Results. From eight schools, 875 students participated in the survey. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in the selection of 14 factors explaining 76.6% of the total variance and grouping 75 of the 86-items in the SAPLCC into six domains: knowledge (16 items), skills (11 items), attitude (15 items), encounters (11 items), abilities (13 items), and awareness (9 items). Using a more diverse representative sample of pharmacy students resulted in important revisions of the constructs and allowed the identification of a new factor: Social Determinants of Health. Conclusion.The 75 item SAPLCC is a reliable instrument covering a full range of domains that can be used to measure both, the baseline and post-education cultural competence perceived level of pharmacy students.

A Call to Action for a Programmatic Approach to Addressing Health Disparities and Cultural Competency in Pharmacy Education

“…Prior pharmacy literature has certainly underscored the importance of integrating HDCC content within curricula and providing frameworks for integration, assessment tools, experiential experience training, addressing the needs of certain diverse populations, and recommendations for increasing diversity within the profession. [13][14][15][16][17] However, there remains limited research in implementing a holistic, programmatic approach to HDCC education. A literature search was conducted previously to explore other disciplines and there were few successes described in the literature.…”

Cultural Competency-Related Content among Florida Colleges of Pharmacy Curricula

“…Although both measures were found to be reliable instruments for pharmacy students, the CCCQ did not include specific domains considered critical when teaching cultural competence, such as awareness of racial dynamics and self-reflection included in the CBMCS (Boutin-Foster, Foster and Konopasek, 2018;Watt, Abbot and Reath, 2016). In contrast, it was decided the CBMCS was too brief to comprehensively evaluate training needs (Echeverri et al, 2018).…”

Descriptive assessment of graduates' perceptions of pharmacy-related competencies based on the Lebanese pharmacy core competencies framework

“…Lebanon being a multicultural country, it is essential to adapt pharmacy graduates to different cultural backgrounds and measure pharmacy students' perceived level of cultural competence at baseline and upon completion of the pharmacy program. 44 In the framework used in this study, the cultural aspects were especially approached in the personal skills domain that scored high among respondents. As a low-to middle-income country, Lebanon shows good adaptation to cultural differences and backgrounds of the patients among the pharmacy graduates.…”