N. Dogra et D. Stretch, Developing a questionnaire to assess student awareness of the need to be culturally aware in clinical practice, MED TEACH, 23(1), 2001, pp. 59-64
This Study aimed to establish whether students had an awareness of the requ
irement to consider cultural issues in caring for patients and to identify
those issues which are most difficult for students, in order to aid course
development Data was collected using previously developed questionnaires wh
ich were modified and added to for the study undertaken at the University o
f Leicester Medical School in February and June 1998. Thirty fourth year an
d 75 second year medical students completed the questionnaires. Students ac
cepted that they as doctors have a responsibility to be aware of the differ
ent cultures within their practice. Their responses supported the introduct
ion of sessions on cultural and racial awareness as part of the Human Diver
sity Module. The sessions have been designed to facilitate students to expl
ore their own perception and understanding of culture in a challenging, rel
evant and enjoyable way. The questionnaire developed in this study will be
used to compare student attitudes pre- and post-teaching sessions to assess
any change.