Viewpoint: Physician, Know Thyself: The Professional Culture of Medicine as a Framework for Teaching Cultural Competence

Abstract

The need for physicians who are well equipped to treat patients of diverse social and cultural backgrounds is evident. To this end, cultural competence education programs in medical schools have proliferated. Although these programs differ in duration, setting, and content, their intentions are the same: to bolster knowledge, promote positive attitudes, and teach appropriate skills in cultural competence. However, to advance the current state of cultural competence curricula, a number of challenges have to be addressed. One challenge is overcoming learner resistance, a problem that is encountered when attempting to convey the importance of cultural competence to students who view it as a "soft science." There is also the challenge of avoiding the perpetuation of stereotypes and labeling groups as "others" in the process of teaching cultural competence. An additional challenge is that few cultural competence curricula are specifically designed to foster an awareness of the student's own cultural background. The authors propose the professional culture of medicine as a framework to cultural competence education that may help mitigate these challenges. Rather than focusing on patients as the "other" group, this framework explores the customs, languages, and beliefs systems that are shared by physicians, thus defining medicine as a culture. Focusing on the physician's culture may help to broaden students' concept of culture and may sensitize them to the importance of cultural competence. The authors conclude with suggestions on how students can explore the professional culture of medicine through the exploration of films, role-playing, and the use of written narratives.

Professional Culture and Personality Traits of Hospital Pharmacists across Canada: A Fundamental First Step in Developing Effective Knowledge Translation Strategies

“…The years-in-practice question was transformed into a variable called "years in practice by decade". The categories of this variable were 1-10 years, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] years, [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] years, and 31 years or more.…”

“…24 This work identified correlations between culture and the success of rehabilitation efforts in relations between probation officers and offenders 22 ; has revealed a focus on employee autonomy, rather than business outcomes 23 ; and has shown miscommunications among different groups of accountants. 24 Furthermore, descriptive examinations of the culture of health care professionals have been started for physicians, 21 nurses, 25 and social workers. 26 The current work focuses on the professional culture of pharmacy, in an effort to first understand the components of that culture and then to gain preliminary insight into how that culture may interact with cultural antecedents, such as education and number of years in practice, to ultimately influence the daily behaviours of pharmacists.…”

“…Regardless of whether a particular research endeavour is addressing organizational or professional culture, the definition traditionally focuses on a shared set of meanings. [18][19][20][21] As such, for the purposes of this project, professional culture is defined broadly as the "patterns of [subjective] interpretation composed of meanings associated with various cultural manifestations, such as stories, rituals, formal and informal practices, jargon and physical arrangements" (p. 330). 18 This means that culture can be understood as a part of the conceptual framework used by pharmacists to make sense of their everyday interactions.…”

Using the virtual world of Second Life to teach cultural competence for health science professional students.

“…Cultural competency has been taught as a part of health science students' curriculum for many years now due to an increase in diversity and mandates set on a national level (AAMC, 2005;Boutin-Foster, 2008;Durand et al, 2012;Flores et al, 2000;Kripalani et al, 2006). The overall goal of cultural competency training is to equip future providers with the knowledge and skills to have a full understanding of cultural differences in order to provide an effective clinical experience for patients (Long, 2011).…”

“…Medical students should learn to recognize and appropriately address gender and cultural biases in health care delivery, while considering first the health of the patient" (AAMC, 2005 (Boutin-Foster, 2008). There are a variety of traditional approaches used to teach cultural competence: Case-studies, didactic, group learning, problem-based, and clerkships, which account for the smallest percentage (Flores et al, 2000;Kripalani, 2006).…”