Cultural Competency in Health Care and Its Implications for Pharmacy Part 3B: Emphasis on Pharmacy Education Policy, Procedures, and Climate

Abstract

The Institute of Medicine has stated that greater diversity within health care professionals leads to improved patient outcomes. Therefore, greater diversity within academia and student bodies is required to create future diverse health care professionals. Cultural sensitivity is required from recruitment to physical environment for administrators, faculty, staff, and students. University, college, and department recruitment, search committees, hiring practices, and admissions policies and procedures need to be assessed to determine whether they reflect the applicant pool and patient populations in their regions and whether they are culturally sensitive to a wide variety of cultures. The mission, vision, policies, procedures, curriculums, and environments should also be created or reviewed, modified, and/or expanded to ensure that no administrator, faculty member, staff member, or student is discriminated against or disadvantaged because of cultural beliefs or practices. In addition to discussing the interplay between cultural sensitivity and academic policies, procedures, and environments, this article briefly discusses specific cultural issues related to religion, spirituality, race, ethnicity, gender, age, marital status, veterans, physical, mental, and learning disabilities, and sexual orientation diversity.

Predisposition for Empathy, Intercultural Sensitivity, and Intentions for Using Motivational Interviewing in First Year Pharmacy Students

“…In addition, the evolving role of pharmacists in the health care continuum requires knowledge on how cultural identity influences health care seeking behaviors, uptake/adherence to health behavior recommendations, and provider-patient interactions. 31 Male students reported lower salience for the role of empathy in contrast to female students. The ability to express empathy has been reported as a positive indicator of patient-centered disposition among health care providers and sex-based differences have also been reported.…”

“…The ability to express empathy has been reported as a positive indicator of patient-centered disposition among health care providers and sex-based differences have also been reported. [28][29][30][31][32] Bratek and colleagues assessed empathy among medical school candidates, students, trainees, residents and specialists using a self-report survey (The Interpersonal Reactivity Index). 33 Similar differences based on sex was reported, where female participants reported higher empathy compared to male participants.…”

Cultural awareness and competence of pharmacy educators and learners from the perspective of pharmacy students at Qatar University: A mixed-methods approach

“…As language awareness is obviously essential for successful communication in the delivery of health care, health professional education programs ought to ensure that students are equipped to provide adequate linguistic care to patients [8]. Furthermore, according to O'Connell (2013), cultural diversity should encompass not only race and ethnicity, but also socioeconomic status, rural and urban background, age, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other life experiences [9]. Thus, diversity among members of a society in these aspects is counted as cultural diversity.…”

Patients as Teachers of Cultural Sensitivity in Pharmacy Education

“…A special population in the course was defined based on the CAPE competencies requiring students demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, spirituality, disability, and other aspects of diversity and identity. 8 , 9 The course director used recommendations from the ACCP White Paper 7 to identify potential special populations for representation on the panel and contacted various colleagues and community organizations to identify potential panelists who could represent these diverse patient populations. Those identified were selected based on their academic or practical expertise in the area of cultural sensitivity and were offered a $50 stipend for their time.…”

“…The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) established a Task Force on Cultural Competency, which published a series of White Papers from 2007 to 2013 that described the necessity of and best practices for culturally sensitive healthcare delivery and education. 4 – 7 One paper in the series recommends that curricula incorporate culturally sensitive training focusing not only on race, ethnicity, and underserved populations, but also health disparities, social justice, disabilities, religion, and sexual orientation. 6 …”