Training of Lecturers

1. Cultural Competence

Within the past decade cultural competence has become somewhat of a hot topic within the medical community. To meet the requirements of globalization in health care, medical curricula should include intercultural topics, such as cultural backgrounds of international students, co-workers and patients. As diversity has increased steadily - not just within the medical workforce but especially with a view to patient treatment - medical practitioners have seen an ever growing need for cultural sensitivity and competence as they deal with such patients. Cultural competence is, however, more than just an accumulation of facts about practices of a culture other than one’s own. Kumagai and Lypson (2009) have shown that it encompasses the need for medical personnel to reflect on their own construct of bias and belief. In other words: reflecting on someone’s culture can only be done within the context of reflection on one’s own. Moreover, as Taylor (2003) demonstrated, cultural practices have to be seen in the context of the individual. Not all members of a certain culture adhere strictly to the beliefs, practices and regulations of that culture. In this context the normal distribution of a society with regard to certain characteristics should also be taken into account. This needs to be kept in mind in order to avoid stereotyping patients, especially in situations when the patient’s cultural views could be opposite to one’s own. Practitioners should therefore exercise great caution not to translate stereotypes into provision of care.