Cultural Competence — Marginal or Mainstream Movement?

TLDR

The increasing diversity of the U.S. population means physicians encounter patients from varied sociocultural backgrounds, and culture profoundly shapes health beliefs and behaviors, prompting renewed attention to cultural competence by professional organizations. The study aims to equip physicians with knowledge and skills to address cross‑cultural challenges in clinical encounters through cultural competence education.

Abstract

As the United States becomes increasingly diverse, physicians will see patients from a variety of sociocultural backgrounds on a daily basis. Culture plays a large role in shaping health-related values, beliefs, and behavior. With the aim of providing physicians with the knowledge and skills to address “cross-cultural” challenges in clinical encounters, educational efforts in “cultural competence” have emerged. This field is not new, but it has been reenergized during the past decade as a result of pronouncements by the Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association, among other organizations, that cultural competence is necessary for the effective practice of . . .