Teaching of cultural diversity in medical schools in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland: cross sectional questionnaire survey

Dogra, Nisha; Conning, S; Gill, Paramjit; Spencer, John; Turner, Margot

doi:10.1136/bmj.38338.661493.ae

Cited by 47 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The estimate of cultural diversity training in medical schools (77%) is only slightly greater than that from a 2003 survey of UK and Irish medical schools (72%), in spite of the GMC publishing in 2005 a set of educational guidelines that included the need to reflect patient-centred care, equality, and valuing diversity. 14,15 Similar sets of principles that encourage cultural awareness within training have been issued by professional bodies representing the other main categories of healthcare professionals including pharmacists. 14 UK regions in which ethnic minorities account for only a small relative percentage of the population (<5%) are less likely to have healthcare schools that teach cultural diversity than regions with a higher ethnic minority representation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural diversity training for UK healthcare professionals: a comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional survey

Bentley¹,

Stevanovic²,

Sharma³

2008

Clinical Medicine

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-Healthcare inequalities within the UK based on patients' ethnicity have been found over the last five years in a large number of medical specialties. One possible explanation for this lies in ignorance of ethnic minority healthcare needs among professionals. Cultural diversity programmes have been shown to improve patient outcomes including compliance, yet these are not as yet requirements for any UK healthcare professionals with the exception of psychiatrists. This paper documents the frequency, regional variation, characteristics and motivations for cultural diversity training through a questionnaire survey of the educational leads of every UK medical school, postgraduate deanery and schools of nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and pharmacy. The results showed a wide variation in teaching practices between healthcare professions and geographical regions. This study provides evidence for the need for national guidelines to incorporate cultural competency training by all UK healthcare professional training bodies. IntroductionEthnic minorities account for approximately 8% of the total population of the UK, equivalent to 4.6 million people, 1 yet their quality of healthcare has been found to be inferior compared to white Caucasians in diseases including heart disease, 2 stroke, 3 cancer, 4,5 HIV, 6 prenatal care, 7 and mental health. 8 In order for medical education to meet the goal of improving healthcare for the whole population, training needs to incorporate the principle of individualising care, including recognising the specific health needs, values and communication issues of ethnic minorities. 9-13 Although UK healthcare professional training bodies in medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and pharmacy have all issued general guidelines that encourage equality and diversity appreciation in educational curricula, 14 there are currently no requirements for teaching centres to provide formal cultural diversity training. In this study the nationwide frequency, characteristics and motivations for formal cultural diversity teaching for the main types of UK healthcare professionals are documented. It was hypothesised that regions of the UK that have relatively small proportions of ethnic minorities would be less likely to feature cultural diversity training within their healthcare programmes. Methods Search strategyHealth professional courses for the 2006/7 year were identified through the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) -the sole UK central organisation through which applications are processed for entry to full-time undergraduate courses, higher national diploma and university diploma -in the following subjects: medicine, physiotherapy, nursing, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and pharmacy. The names and contact addresses of the dean or director of medical education (or equivalent) for each training programme were subsequently identified. The list was complemented with informatio...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural diversity training for UK healthcare professionals: a comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional survey

Bentley¹,

Stevanovic²,

Sharma³

2008

Clinical Medicine

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“…Culhane-Pera et al, 1997;Dogra, 2001). There is evidence (Dogra et al, 2005) that, although many UK medical schools now address this issue at undergraduate level, teaching is fragmented and there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what diversity education actually is. Webb & Sergison (2003) reported that child healthcare professionals found their race awareness training useful.…”

Section: Current Training and Issues Raisedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity training for psychiatrists

Dogra¹,

Karim²

2005

Adv. psychiatr. treat

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There is great concern about the access of ethnic minority clients to appropriate healthcare and the treatment they experience once they gain access to services. There have been recent calls for training in cultural diversity to be prioritised for mental healthcare professionals, including psychiatrists. In this article we discuss the term 'cultural diversity' and consider its relevance to psychiatrists. We then briefly review some of the training currently available, discussing related issues and problems, including the lack of evaluation. We suggest how psychiatrists may need to change their approach to this subject.

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“…Guidelines would support teachers in this area. (Dogra et al 2005). It has also followed a political rather than educational agenda (Dogra 2004).…”

Section: Practice Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The views of medical education stakeholders on guidelines for cultural diversity teaching

Dogra

2007

Medical Teacher

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Background: The General Medical Council set out the framework within which it expects medical education to develop. Educational guidelines have been developed across the world but their development is less clear in the UK. There has been little work regarding views about educational guidelines. Aim: The research objective was to establish the views of medical education stakeholders towards specific guidelines for teaching in cultural diversity to medical students. Methods: Sixty-one individuals were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis was undertaken after the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Results: In total, 51 respondents felt that guidelines would be useful; 17 of these explicitly stipulated that these would only be useful if they were not prescriptive and if they were applied flexibly and were practical. Four respondents, including two policy-makers holding senior positions with medical educational bodies, felt that new guidelines would not be useful, as they already existed in some form. Five respondents were unsure if guidelines would be helpful or not. Conclusions: Guidelines were considered to be potentially useful for several reasons including to: help clarify what should be taught regarding cultural diversity and how it should be taught, provide justification for teaching the subject, help those unfamiliar with the subject, support those assigned with responsibility for developing such teaching, provide course and curriculum designers with reassurance, increase the credibility of the subject, set standards that serve as a benchmark against which schools can compare themselves with one another and highlight good practice. The reservations expressed suggest that the guidelines need to be developed using a range of stakeholders and have some degree of consensus to ensure that they will be used. The literature relating to attitudes towards clinical practice guidelines has much to contribute to the development of educational guidelines.

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Teaching of cultural diversity in medical schools in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland: cross sectional questionnaire survey

Cited by 47 publications

References 2 publications

Cultural diversity training for UK healthcare professionals: a comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional survey

Cultural diversity training for UK healthcare professionals: a comprehensive nationwide cross-sectional survey

Diversity training for psychiatrists

The views of medical education stakeholders on guidelines for cultural diversity teaching

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