CULTURAL-SENSITIVITY TRAINING IN UNITED-STATES MEDICAL-SCHOOLS

Background. As the United States becomes more multicultural, physician s face the challenge of providing culturally sensitive and appropriate health care to patients with differing health beliefs and values. Whi le a few schools are providing cultural-sensitivity training in respon se to the changing patient population, the pervasiveness of such train ing has not been thoroughly reported. Method. In 1991-92, all 126 U.S. medical schools were surveyed regarding their implementation and plan s for future implementation of cultural-sensitivity training. The t-te st was used to compare data from those schools that offered separate, formal cultural-sensitivity courses with data from the schools that di d not offer such courses. Results. Of the 126 schools surveyed, 98 (78 %) responded. Only 13 of the responding schools offered cultural-sensi tivity courses to their students, and all but one of these courses wer e optional. These 13 schools reported a greater perceived likelihood t hat their students would have contact with African-American patients ( t = 2.88, p <.05). Despite the few courses offered and the common perc eption that recent graduates were only ''somewhat prepared'' to provid e culturally sensitive clinical services, only 33 schools were plannin g to implement new courses. Conclusion. The results indicate needs for more cultural-sensitivity training and for further studies to determi ne the most effective type of training for students.