Developing and Testing the Short‐Form Knowledge, Efficacy, and Practices Instrument for Assessing Cultural Competence

Abstract

The importance of educating dental students in cultural competence has been widely emphasized, but there is a need to assess cultural competence in a consistent and reliable way. The aims of this study were to determine latent constructs for the initial measure of cultural competence for oral health providers, the Knowledge, Efficacy, and Practices Instrument (KEPI), and to determine how well these factors related to previously identified latent constructs. Data were collected in surveys of dental students and from dental hygiene, dental assisting, and dental faculty members in 44 academic dental institutions from 2012 to 2015. There were a total of 1,786 respondents to the surveys; response rates to individual surveys ranged from 35% to 100%. There were 982 (55%) female and 804 (45%) male respondents, 286 (16%) underrepresented minority (URM) and 1,500 (84%) non-URM respondents, and 339 (19%) faculty and 1,447 (81%) student respondents. Three latent constructs were identified. Female respondents scored significantly higher on the culture-centered practice and efficacy of assessment factors, while URM respondents had significantly higher scores on all three of the KEPI factors. Measurements indicated that the long-form KEPI could be shortened by ten questions and still have three meaningful measurements. Continued research in assessing other health care providers' cultural competence is needed to expand the KEPI to measure providers' cultural competence with patients with minority sexual orientation and gender identity issues and those with physical disabilities, mental illness, and autism to advance patient-centric communication.

Teaching University students for a Multicultural society

“…Scholarly research reports were based on various measurements, among them the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer, 2008); the Quick-Racial and Ethical Sensitivity Test (Quick-REST) (Brabeck et al 2000); the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) (Kelly and Meyers, 2007); the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence-Student Version (IAPCCSV) (Campinha-Bacote, 2015); Knowledge, Efficacy and Practices Instrument (KEPI) (Garvan, Garvan, and Behar-Horenstein, 2016); My Cultural Awareness Profile (MyCAP) (Marx & Moss, 2011;Spitzer, 2015); and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) (Pennebaker et al 2007).…”

Assessment of Psychometric Properties of an Oral Health Care Measure of Cultural Competence Among Dental Students Using Rasch Partial Credit Model

“…Later, the convergent and divergent validity of KEPI‐OHP was assessed by Pearson correlation, 7 and the results ensured adequate external validity. Recently, a short form of KEPI with 17 items was developed by Garvan et al 8 The revised form omitted items with weak factor loadings and confirmed construct validity across the three subscales.…”

Cultural awareness training for dental students

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Consensus has not been reached regarding a comprehensive educational framework or standard methods for teaching and evaluating cultural competency programs that will be effective over the long term. [9][10][11] However, evidence suggests that curricula using a combination of didactic training, community engagement, and reflective writing may increase students' cultural competency. 12 Effective cultural competency instruction should begin early in students' training and continue as an integral part of the curriculum throughout dental school.…”