Cultural Competency: Customizing Health Care for Diverse Patients
The Institute of Medicine identified patient-centeredness as one of the elements of quality health care. The definition of patient-centeredness includes responsiveness to the needs and preferences of the patient. There is a conceptual overlap between patient-centeredness and cultural competence:
The Commonwealth Fund Cultural Competency Report: Cultural Competency and Patient-Centered Care
There are many useful frameworks and resources for understanding and applying cultural competency in health care:
National Quality Forum Framework for Cultural Competency
Health Resources and Services Administration Organizational Cultural Competence Assessment
Management Sciences for Health Provider’s Guide to Quality and Culture
Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence
Many health care organizations are integrating concepts of cultural competency into their quality improvement and disparities reduction activities:
The California Endowment Report: Building Culturally Competent Health Systems
Encouraging Cultural and Linguistic Competent Practices in Mainstream Health Organizations
Health professions education and training programs also are integrating cultural competency into their curricula:
Association of American Medical Colleges: Cultural Competency Education
The May 2010 Supplement 2 to the Journal of General Internal Medicine is focused on cultural competency and health disparities issues in medical education – all the articles in the issue are available through open access (scroll down to bottom of right side of page)
American Association of Colleges of Nursing: Cultural Competency in Baccalaureate and in Master’s and Doctoral Nursing Education
California Dental Pipeline Program Toolkit for Treating Culturally Diverse Patients
Institute for Medical Quality CME Resources on Cultural and Linguistic Competency
Ignatius Bau 