Appalachian Culture & History, An Important Lesson for Incoming Medical Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION There is an expectation that medical students will be exposed to and gain cultural competence prior to graduation. It is prudent to ensure that cultural competence education starts early in the medical school curriculum. METHODS A 90-minute educational session ("Appalachian Culture and History") was created at the West Virginia University School of Medicine as a part of the cultural competency curriculum to better introduce and orient new medical school matriculates to the culture and history of both the state and Appalachia. Students anonymously completed on-line evaluations at the conclusion of the session to rate the quality of the presentation on a five-point scale which ranged from 1 (" very dissatisfied ") to S ("extremely satisfied "). RESULTS Students rated the session at a mean of 4.52, 4.37, and 4,53 in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. Positive comments were generated by in-state and out-of-state students. DISCUSSION Matriculating students have been overwhelmingly satisfied with the Appalachian Culture and History educational session based upon anonymous evaluations. CONCLUSIONS As the majority of medical students have positively appraised the Appalachian Culture and History educational session, there is reason to believe they will be better prepared to learn from and care for patients from Appalachia.