Assessing the Cultural Competency of Dental Students and Residents

Abstract

This article presents a literature review of cultural competency education in the health professions (dentistry, dental hygiene, medicine, and nursing) with specific reference to methods of evaluating student and resident knowledge of cultural competency concepts and practices and clinical performance. Some important barriers to developing evaluation instruments are the following: 1) little consensus on core competency knowledge; 2) erroneous notions of race; and 3) stereotyping the behavior of racial groups. The relative advantages of the different examination methods now used to evaluate students and residents (qualitative, quantitative, practical, and self-evaluation) are reviewed, and recommendations are made regarding three instruments that schools can use to assess student knowledge and clinical performance.Ms.

Retracted: Differences in Dental Students' Intercultural Competence Across a Four‐Year Program

“…A review of the cultural competence of U.S. dental students reported in 2008 that one quarter of them felt more time was needed for training in that area and that cultural competence is important 29 . In another Canadian study, conducted at the University of British Columbia dental school, more than half of the senior dental students were not confident in treating patients from diverse cultural groups, found communication barriers in treating different sociocultural populations, and believed they needed more cultural competence training 15 .…”

Teaching Cultural Competence in Dental Education: A Systematic Review and Exploration of Implications for Indigenous Populations in Australia

“…A lack of agreement on specific cultural competencies to be achieved has contributed to the scarcity of instruments available to measure cultural competence 58 . Students and professionals are often resistant to discussing their personal perceptions about culture or ethnicity, which poses challenges in attempting to measure the impact of cultural diversity and bias 8 .…”

Cultural competency and communication skills of dental students: clinical supervisors' perceptions

“…However, there is no magic formula to ensure that the unique cultural needs of every patient are addressed. In line with the literature, the main approaches cited by CS to facilitate the learning of the cognitive basis of cultural competence included a variety of teaching exercises that enable feedback on course content and student response , practical exercises [role playing and simulation] , clinical rotations in culturally diverse communities and self‐evaluation [reflective diaries about personal opinions concerning treating culturally diverse patients and their CC training] , as well as interdisciplinary courses with other health practitioners . It was also suggested that increasing the proportion of students from ethnic minorities within dental schools, and exposure to as wide as possible a variety of cultures may help address challenges associated with cultural diversity and cultural learning .…”

“…CC in health care will contribute to the reduction in health disparities amongst patients. Methods of tackling the teaching of CC have been researched in the fields of medicine , nursing and dentistry . Despite this, there are reports of a lack of awareness of the importance of cultural competence in dental education .…”