Establishing an evidence-based cultural competency program with advanced practice providers in a community oncology setting.

Abstract

199 Background: The United States continues to grow in both population and diversity. The trigger for this project was the dramatic increase in patient diversity in Texas and the lack of adequate cultural competency training for providers at a Texas Oncology clinic network. Clinicians must increase their self-awareness and knowledge to provide culturally competent care. The literature review found multiple educational modalities, across many health care disciplines, used by researchers to improve the cultural competency of health care providers. Methods: This project sought to improve satisfaction and adherence of patients over the age of 25 diagnosed with cancer by increasing provider cultural sensitivity and self-awareness of bias within 1 month of cultural competency training. The project sample was 14 advanced practice providers, 10 APRNs and 4 PAs. The educational plan for this project included an evidence-based course and a follow-up focus group to reinforce learning. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Cultural Competence Assessment tool to compare participants’ anonymous pre- and posteducation with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Qualitative data was obtained during focus groups. Results: The quantitative data indicated that cultural awareness and sensitivity increased following training, with median scores increasing from 6.09 to 6.55, p = 0.03. However, the data do not suggest that cultural competence and behavior changed after training, as median scores went from 3.96 to 4.23 after training, p = 0.06. Overall, the focus group participants agreed about improving self-awareness, identifying biases, improving patient experience by asking more open-ended questions, and being vulnerable. Conclusions: Despite the small sample size, the quantitative and qualitative data suggest that cultural awareness and sensitivity improved following the EBP course and focus group meetings. Cultural competency and behavior did not change according to the data. However, the project implications include improvement in provider knowledge and increased self-awareness, which promote individualized, culturally sensitive care.