Cross-cultural primary care: A patient-based approach

In today's multicultural society, assuring quality health care for all pers ons requires that physicians understand how each patient's sociocultural ba ckground affects his or her health beliefs and behaviors. Cross-cultural cu rricula have been developed to address these issues but are not widely used in medical education. Many curricula take a categorical and potentially st ereotypic approach to "cultural competence" that weds patients of certain c ultures to a set of specific, unifying characteristics. In addition, curric ula frequently overlook the importance of social factors on the cross-cultu ral encounter. This paper discusses a patient-based cross-cultural curricul um for residents and medical students that teaches a framework for analysis of the individual patient's social context and cultural health beliefs and behaviors. The curriculum consists of five thematic units taught in four 2 -hour sessions. The goal is to help physicians avoid cultural generalizatio ns while improving their ability to understand, communicate with, and care for patients from diverse backgrounds.