P22 Development of Cultural Competence in Dietetics and Nutrition Students: Is Cultural Humility the Missing Link?

Abstract

Background Cultural competence is a key component of dietetics and nutrition curriculum due to the increase in diversity in the United States. Few studies have been completed in the dietetics and nutrition field to determine best practices in curriculum development to increase cultural awareness and competence of students. Objective The purpose of this study is to determine dietetics and nutrition faculty perceptions of their students’ cultural competence and to determine best practices for educating and training students to become culturally competent professionals. Study Design, Settings, Participants Seven dietetics and nutrition faculty were interviewed about their perceptions of cultural competence in students and their thoughts on how to best deliver cultural competence training to students. Interviews were conducted using an in-depth, semi-structured interview process and were recorded with permission of the participant. Measurable Outcome/Analysis The interviews ranged in length from 19-40 minutes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and resulted in 58 pages of transcripts. During the transcription process, the investigator engaged in a constant comparative method of data analysis and axial coding. Results The importance of cultural humility emerged as a prominent theme throughout the interviews with dietetics and nutrition faculty. Subthemes of cultural humility included communication and sharing, encounters and opportunities, continual reflection and lifelong process. Faculty discussed the importance of students communicating with individuals from a different culture throughout the curriculum. Faculty and students sharing also emerged as important throughout the curriculum. Encounters with individuals from different cultures and faculty arranging opportunities for students to engage in cross-cultural interactions emerged as an important subtheme. Lastly, faculty frequently discussed the importance of cultural competence being a lifelong process. Conclusion Cultural humility is missing from current cultural competence frameworks and should be considered as an additional construct to the current cultural competency framework and added to the curriculum for dietetics and nutrition students. Funding None.