Cultural Competency Training and Education in the University-based Professional Training of Health Professionals: Characteristics, Quality and Outcomes of Evaluations

Cultural competence is a broad concept used to describe strategies designed to ensure that healthprofessionals are able to provide quality health care to diverse populations.

Cultural Competency

Over the last ten years or so, the term ‘cultural competence’ has become prominent in the health and medical education literature. According to Betancourt (2006), ‘physicians need a practical set of tools and skills that will enable them to provide quality care to patients everywhere, from anywhere, with whatever differences in background that may exist…’ Consistent with this imprimatur, most medical and nursing schools must provide some level of training in this area to meet accreditation requirements and therefore now include some level of cultural competency education and training in their curricula. For example, in Australia, cultural competency is endorsed by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and medical courses must provide cultural competency training in their curricula to meet accreditation requirements. Read more>>>>>>>