Culturally Sensitive Care: A Review of Models and Educational Methods

Abstract

The disparities in health care outcomes between the majority population and cultural and racial minorities in the USA are a problem likely influenced by the lack of culturally competent care. Emergency medicine and other primary care specialties remain on the front lines of this struggle due to the nature of their open door practice. In order to provide culturally appropriate care, health care providers must recognize the factors impeding cultural awareness, seek to understand the biases and traditions in medical education potentially fueling this phenomenon, and create a health care community open to individuals’ “otherness,” thus leading to better communication of ideas and information between patients and their health care providers. This chapter highlights the rationale for and current problems in teaching cultural competency in physicians and examines several different models implemented to teach and promote cultural competency in the health care environment. However, the literature addressing the true efficacy of such programs in leading to long-lasting change and improvement in minority outcomes remains insufficient.