Multicultural Sensitivity of Physician Assistant Students After Instituting Cultural Competence Instruction

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of two cultural competence interventions in a physician assistant (PA) program. Methods: An intensive Spanish language (ISL) course and a longitudinal course in cultural competency (CC) were implemented and assessed using the Multicultural Sensitivity Scale (MSS) at three time points. Differences were analyzed between and within groups. Results: Three groups (totaling 74 students) participated in ISL, CC, or ISL and CC; and a nonintervention group of 37 was used for comparison. At baseline and after preclinical coursework, no differences were found between the groups. After clinical rotations, differences were noted between the CC and comparison groups (p=.010). Notably, MSS scores of the CC group significantly increased (p<.001) throughout the study. Conclusions: A cultural competence curriculum seems to be associated with increases in cultural competence for some students. Cultural competence education of health professionals has evolved since the start of this study. More research is needed to determine the factors (eg, dosage and course format) that may have the greatest influence on increasing student cultural competence.