Occupational therapy students' perceptions of their cultural awareness and competency

Occupational therapy students' perceptions of cultural awareness and their self-rated level of cultural competence were investigated. Seventy-two participants at four stages of education (on entry, on completion of university-based studies, on completion of fieldwork and one year following graduation) completed the Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity Questionnaire. The findings indicate that occupational therapy students graduated with an understanding of cultural diversity and the realization that cultural awareness and sensitivity are essential to culturally competent practice. The findings suggest that there is not enough exposure to cultural issues in both university-based education and in fieldwork. This study was limited to one state university and to most students aged < or =24 years and predominantly female. It did not explore the factors that influence the development of cultural competence and the methods to develop it. Future studies should monitor actual culture-related exposures to determine how learning experiences are organized and the ways culture influences the learning process and clinical competence.     

Beyond cultural competency: Bourdieu, patients and clinical encounters

In response to widely documented racial and ethnic disparities in health, clinicians and public health advocates have taken great strides to implement 'culturally competent' care. While laudable, this important policy and intellectual endeavour has suffered from a lack of conceptual clarity and rigour. This paper develops a more careful conceptual model for understanding the role of culture in the clinical encounter, paying particular attention to the relationship between culture, contexts and social structures. Linking Bourdieu's (1977 ) notion of 'habitus' and William Sewell's (1992 ) axioms of multiple and intersecting structures, we theorise patient culture in terms of 'hybrid habitus'. This conceptualisation of patient culture highlights three analytical dimensions: the multiplicity of schemas and resources available to patients, their specific patterns of integration and application in specific contexts, and the constitutive role of clinical encounters. The paper concludes with a discussion of directions for future research as well as reforms of cultural competency training courses.     

Do Professional Interpreters Improve Clinical Care for Patients with Limited English Proficiency? A Systematic Review of the Literature

OBJECTIVE: To determine if professional medical interpreters have a positive impact on clinical care for limited English proficiency (LEP) patients. DATA SOURCES: A systematic literature search, limited to the English language, in PubMed and PsycINFO for publications between 1966 and September 2005, and a search of the Cochrane Library. STUDY DESIGN: Any peer-reviewed article which compared at least two language groups, and contained data about professional medical interpreters and addressed communication (errors and comprehension), utilization, clinical outcomes, or satisfaction were included. Of 3,698 references, 28 were found by multiple reviewers to meet inclusion criteria and, of these, 21 assessed professional interpreters separately from ad hoc interpreters. Data were abstracted from each article by two reviewers. Data were collected on the study design, size, comparison groups, analytic technique, interpreter training, and method of determining the participants' need for an interpreter. Each study was evaluated for the effect of interpreter use on four clinical topics that were most likely to either impact or reflect disparities in health and health care. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In all four areas examined, use of professional interpreters is associated with improved clinical care more than is use of ad hoc interpreters, and professional interpreters appear to raise the quality of clinical care for LEP patients to approach or equal that for patients without language barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Published studies report positive benefits of professional interpreters on communication (errors and comprehension), utilization, clinical outcomes and satisfaction with care.     

Theme-oriented discourse analysis of medical encounters

APPROACH: Theme-oriented discourse analysis looks at how language constructs professional practice. Recordings of naturally occurring interactions are transcribed and combined with ethnographic knowledge. Analytic themes drawn primarily from sociology and linguistics shed light on how meaning is negotiated in interaction. Detailed features of talk, such as intonation and choice of vocabulary, trigger inferences about what is going on and being talked about. These affect how interactants judge each other and decisions are made. Interactions also have larger rhetorical patterns used by both patients and doctors to persuade each other. EXAMPLES: Two settings are used to illustrate this approach: genetic counselling and primary care consultations in multilingual areas. In genetic counselling, interactions are organised around the tension between the risks of knowing and the risks of occurrence. This can lead to a 'rhetorical duel' between health professionals and patients and their families. In intercultural primary care settings, talk itself may be the problem when interpretive processes cannot be taken for granted. Even widely held models of good practice can lead to misunderstandings under these conditions. CONCLUSION; Through discourse analysis, the talk under scrutiny can be slowed down to show the interpretive processes and overall patterns of an activity. Discourse analysts and health professionals, working together, can look at problems in new ways and develop interventions and tools for a better understanding of communication in medical life.     

Measuring patients’ perceptions of communication with healthcare providers: Do differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics matter?

Background  National governments across the globe have set goals to improve healthcare delivery. Understanding patient–provider communication is essential for the development of policies that measure how well a healthcare system delivers care.
Objectives  This study was designed to determine which, if any, demographic factors were independently associated with how US patients perceive various aspects of communication with their healthcare providers.
Design and methods  The study was a secondary, cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative data from the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Among US adults with a healthcare visit in the past year ( n  = approximately 16 700), we assessed the association between several covariate demographic and socioeconomic factors and four dependent measures of patient perceptions of communication with their healthcare providers.
Results  Across all four measures of communication, older patients were more likely to report positively. Having health insurance and a usual source of care were consistent predictors of positive perceptions of communication. Hispanic patients also reported better perceptions of communication across all four measures. The most economically disadvantaged patients were less likely to report that providers always explained things so that they understood. Male patients were more likely to report that providers always spent enough time with them.
Conclusions  This study suggests that patient perceptions of communication in healthcare settings vary widely by demographics and other individual patient characteristics. In this paper, we discuss the relevance of these communication disparities to design policies to improve healthcare systems, both at the individual practice level and the national level.     

Faculty attitudes towards medical communication and their perceptions of students' communication skills training at Dalhousie University

SETTING: Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. OBJECTIVES: (1) To assess the attitudes of full-time clinical faculty members towards medical communication using the newly developed Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale; (2) to determine faculty members' perceptions of communications training for students and residents. METHODS: An anonymous self-completion survey was sent to 233 full-time clinical faculty members. The questionnaire asked about faculty attitudes towards medical communication, and assessed faculty members' views of student and resident training in communication. RESULTS: Faculty scored highly in the Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale, with a mean score of 51.5 (SD 4.1) out of a possible 60. In univariate analysis, rating of personal enjoyment of teaching, rating of the importance of teaching, and having attended at least one faculty communications workshop in the previous 5 years were significantly associated with higher scale scores. When these factors were assessed using linear regression, only having attended a workshop and higher rating of the importance of teaching remained significant. Faculty assessed student training in communications skills poorly overall. When assessing seven specific communications areas, more than 20% rated this training as poor for six of the areas for third- and fourth-year students and for five of the areas for residents. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical faculty at Dalhousie have very positive attitudes towards medical communication, and more highly positive attitudes are found in those who have attended a communications workshop. Despite this evidence that faculty appreciate the importance of medical communication skills, many assessed students' training in this curriculum area as poor.     

Integrating cultural competency into the undergraduate medical curriculum

CONTEXT: A significant movement is underway to develop standardised curricula that provide medical students with a fundamental knowledge of cultural sensitivity. METHODS: This paper reviews the recent initiative to integrate cultural competency training into the curricula of American undergraduate medical institutions. RESULTS: Despite these initiatives, few medical institutions have achieved a comprehensive curriculum providing for continued cultural experiences and assessment of related skill sets. The article proposes a framework for the introduction of continued instruction in and assessment of cultural competency within the undergraduate medical education. CONCLUSIONS: The described components of cultural competency education in the undergraduate medical curricula provide a framework to facilitate early and continued exposure to experiences designed to promote cultural sensitivity.     

The rise and fall of students' skill in obtaining a medical history

A gradual shift towards a more humanistic conception of medicine has occurred in recent years. Along with this shift have come attempts by medical educators to include interviewing and communication skills as part of the medical curriculum. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of a clinical medicine curriculum which emphasizes interviewing skills. Between 1992 and 1994 the 292 graduates of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine participated in five clinical skills teaching and assessment programmes during the four years of medical school. During each of these five programmes, the students' interviewing skills were rated using the Arizona Clinical Interview Rating Scale (ACIR). The raters were standardized patients with whom they had just completed a medical encounter. Results show that students' development of skills differed, with closure items showing the greatest increase and social history items showing the greatest decline, with an overall initial increase and then a decline in interviewing skills over the four years. Explanations for these findings include the de-emphasis of communication skills during the clinical years and the culture of medicine to which students are exposed during these years.     

Children and their parents assessing the doctor-patient interaction: a rating system for doctors' communication skills

CONTEXT: Only a patient and his or her family can judge many of the most important aspects of the doctor-patient interaction. This study evaluates the feasibility and reliability of children and their families assessing the quality of paediatricians' interactions using a rating instrument developed specifically for this purpose. METHODS: A reliability analysis using generalisability theory on the ratings from 352 doctor-patient interactions across different speciality clinics. RESULTS: Ratings were normally distributed. They were highest for 'overall' performance, and lowest for giving time to discuss the families' agenda. An appropriate sample of adults' ratings provided a reliable score (G = 0.7 with 15 raters), but children's ratings were too idiosyncratic to be reproducible (G = 0.36 with 15 raters). CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK: Accompanying adults can provide reliable ratings of doctors' interactions with children. Because an adult is usually present at the consultation their ratings provide a highly feasible and authentic approach. Sampling doctors' interactions from different clinics and with patients of both genders provides a universal picture of performance. The method is ideal to measure performance for in-training assessment or revalidation. Further work is in progress to evaluate the educational impact of feeding ratings back to the doctors being assessed, and their use in a range of clinical contexts.     

Health care for the poor--an exploration of primary-care physicians' perceptions of poor patients and of their helping behaviors

This paper explores the ways in which primary-care physicians in Israel perceive and help poor patients. Our findings are based on a qualitative study that utilized a focus group and in-depth interviews with 16 primary-care physicians who qualified both in Israel and in the former Soviet Union, and who work in community clinics one Health Maintenance Organization serving poor populations of diverse cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds (immigrants from the former Soviet Union and from Ethiopia, Bedouin, ultra-orthodox Jews, the chronic poor, and the 'new' poor). It was found that the physicians presume causality between poverty and health, identify and distinguish between different types of poverty, and make associations based on the type of poverty and type of patient problem. Their thinking on poverty is patient-oriented rather than socially oriented. An analysis of these findings resulted in a conceptualization of five types of physician helping behavior: emotional and personal instrumental, reinforcing socially desirable behavior, preferential help and bending the rules, rights realization and working the system, and minimal community involvement. The components of this conceptual model depict and chart issues affecting the helping behavior of the primary-care physician, i.e., type of poverty, type of problem, administrative context and, particularly, physician attributes, such as gender and country where notable. Our findings reveal little social consciousness on the part of the physicians, and we conclude with remarks on the potential for change in this area.     

Validation of the doctor-patient communication component of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates Clinical Skills Assessment

BACKGROUND: The pivotal role of doctor-patient communication in effective health care delivery led the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) to incorporate the assessment of interpersonal skills and spoken English proficiency into its Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA). Furthermore, it was decided that to pass the CSA, a candidate would need to meet or surpass defined performance standards for doctor-patient communication as a discrete component. This requirement, among others, is designed to ensure the readiness of graduates of foreign medical schools (FMGs) to enter postgraduate medical education programmes in the United States. OBJECTIVE: The primary focus of this study was to determine the extent to which performance in a simulated testing environment is related to performance in the clinical setting. METHOD: Nurses were trained to rate the communication skills of residents from the patient's perspective. A total of 43 first-year residents were evaluated. The survey ratings (n=225) were compared with the residents' CSA communication scores. RESULTS: Corrected correlations between CSA ratings and those obtained from nurses ranged from 0.61 to 0.73. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for the validity of the communication ratings provided by standardized patients. The reasonably strong associations between ratings obtained during testing and those obtained through observation of 'real' patient interactions suggest that external observers can provide accurate evaluations of doctor-patient communication.     

Who should assess medical students' communication skills: their academic teachers or their patients?

The objective of this study was to compare the assessment of medical students communication skills made by their academic teachers, with the assessment made by their role-playing `patients'. It was a cross-sectional study, conducted at the Department of General Practice, University of Sydney, Australia, and consisted of 519 undergraduate medical students. Teachers rated students' communication skills using ten specific criteria, each marked on a five-point Likert scale. Teachers then rated students' overall performance using a 10-point scale. Patients rated students' overall performance on the same 10-point Likert scale. Only two of the 10 criteria, as rated by the academic teachers, correlated with the role-playing patients' overall score, and all 10 criteria accounted for only 10·1% of the variance in that score. The academic assessors' overall score accounted for only 9·7% of the variance of the patients' overall score. The communications skills emphasized by academic teachers do not reflect the skills considered to be important by role-playing patients.     

Disparities in reported prenatal care advice from health care providers among women of Mexican origin in California

Poorer birth outcomes have been documented among U.S.-born women of Mexican descent when compared with Mexican immigrant women. Behavioral changes that are associated with acculturation may contribute to these deteriorating outcomes. Prenatal health promotion advice can alter prenatal risk behaviors. The growing diversity of the U.S. population during the 1990s heightens the importance of examining the cultural relevance of current health promotion practices. This study examines disparities in the reported receipt of health behavior advice during pregnancy among U.S.-born women of Mexican origin and Mexican immigrant women in California. Data for the analysis are from the 1994–95 California Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. The study sample includes 1,423 women of Mexican descent. All participants had a live birth in California between January 1994 and December 1995. Women were interviewed about the prenatal counseling they received related to diet, smoking, and alcohol use. Logistic regression was used to analyze the likelihood of reporting advice after controlling for sociodemographic and health system characteristics. Immigrant women were more likely than the U.S.-born to report receipt of prenatal advice on smoking, alcohol, and diet (OR = 1.83, p < .05) despite evidence of the lower prevalence of related health risks among Mexican-born women. Culturally appropriate prenatal counseling would emphasize the maintenance of traditional protective behaviors among less acculturated foreign-born women, and the prevention or cessation of those risk behaviors among the more acculturated women.     

护理专业医学生医患沟通技能及其心理影响因素研究

目的 了解职业技术类院校护理及助产专业医学生的心理对其医患沟通技能的影响作用,为职业技术类院校的医学生医患沟通技能提升提供指导。 方法 利用成熟的医学生医患沟通态度、技能以及心理学相关量表设计调查问卷,采用全部抽样的方式,对忻州职业技术学院护理专业学生进行调研,并最终获得264份有效问卷用于逐步进入法的多元线性回归分析。 结果 分析结果表明,医学生学习医患沟通技能的积极态度（r=0.39,P<0.001）、情绪疏泄能力（r=0.29,P<0.001）、观点采择意识（r=0.20,P<0.001）对其医患沟通技能水平的作用具有统计学意义。 结论 职业技术类院校在培养医学生的医患沟通技能时,应重点关注学生的积极学习态度、情绪疏泄能力和观点采择意识。     

Medical students' perceptions of identity in communication skills training: a qualitative study

Objectives  Communication skills training in undergraduate medical education is considered to play an important role in medical students' formation of their professional identity. This qualitative study explores Year 1 students' perceptions of their identities when practising communication skills with real patients.
Methods  A total of 23 individual semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted with 10 students during their first year of communication skills training. All interviews and discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed for emergent themes relating to identity.
Results  Students struggled to communicate professionally with patients because of a lack of clinical knowledge and skills. Consequently, students enacted other identities, yet patients perceived them differently, causing conversational ambiguities.
Discussion  Students' perceptions challenge educational goals, suggesting that there is limited potential for the formation of professional identity through early training. Teacher-doctors must acknowledge how students' low levels of clinical competence and patients' behaviour complicate students' identity formation.     

The performance of foreign medical graduates on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) standardized patient examination prototype: a collaborative study of the NBME and the educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to explore foreign medical graduates' (FMGs) performance on a clinical skills (SPX) examination. The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) is in the process of developing an SPX for potential use in the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) is developing the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) as an additional requirement for FMGs who wish to be certified by ECFMG. DESIGN: Thirty-three FMGs and 151 United States medical students (USMSs) took the SPX during the winter of 1996 as part of the ongoing pilot studies conducted by the NBME. Four clinical skill areas were assessed: history-taking, physical examination, communication and interpersonal skills. The examination used in this research consisted of 12 cases. The examination utilizes standardized patients (SPs) who are trained to document examinee behaviours and evaluate the communication component of the test. The SPs were also trained to evaluate the English proficiency of the candidates. Candidates were also administered the Test of Spoken English developed by the Educational Testing Services (ETS). SETTING: The examination was conducted in one medical school which served as an SPX centre for NBME pilot studies. SUBJECTS: Thirty-three foreign medical students and 151 US medical students. RESULTS: The indications were that the majority of candidates in both groups felt the examination was moderately fair but 78% of FMGs felt moderately pressed for time, vs. 80% of the USMSs who did not feel pressed for time. Reliabilities obtained for the various SPX components were somewhat higher for the FMGs reflecting the heterogeneity of this group. CONCLUSIONS: The NBME-ECFMG collaborative study yielded important information regarding the NBME SPX prototype as a performance measure for FMGs.     

Towards patient-centered health services in India--a scale to measure patient perceptions of quality.

OBJECTIVE: . (i) To develop a reliable and valid scale to measure in-patient and outpatient perceptions of quality in India and (ii) to identify aspects of perceived quality which have large effects on patient satisfaction. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of health facilities and patients at clinics. SETTING: Primary health centers, community health centers, district hospitals, and female district hospitals in the state of Uttar Pradesh in north India. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Internal consistency, validity, and factor structure of the scale are evaluated. The association between patient satisfaction and perceived quality dimensions is examined. RESULTS: A 16-item scale having good reliability and validity is developed. Five dimensions of perceived quality are identified-medicine availability, medical information, staff behavior, doctor behavior, and hospital infrastructure. Patient perceptions of quality at public health facilities are slightly better than neutral. Multivariate regression analysis results indicate that for outpatients, doctor behavior has the largest effect on general patient satisfaction followed by medicine availability, hospital infrastructure, staff behavior, and medical information. For in-patients, staff behavior has the largest effect followed by doctor behavior, medicine availability, medical information, and hospital infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: The scale developed can be used to measure perceived quality at a range of facility types for outpatients and in-patients. Perceived quality at public facilities is only marginally favorable, leaving much scope for improvement. Better staff and physician interpersonal skills, facility infrastructure, and availability of drugs have the largest effect in improving patient satisfaction at public health facilities.     

Implementation of problem-based learning in Asian medical schools and students' perceptions of their experience

BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) at McMaster University in 1969, many medical schools in the USA, Canada and Europe have included PBL in their curricula. In the past decade, many medical schools in Asia have also done so. However, so far no one has questioned whether the outcomes expected of the learner in a PBL setting are applicable to students from different cultural upbringings. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of PBL in Asian medical schools, their students' perceptions of this new mode of teaching/learning and how the problems that have arisen may be overcome. METHOD: Published reports and conference presentations were gathered on the implementation of PBL in some Asian medical schools and comparisons of the experiences in PBL of Asian and students of other ethnic backgrounds. RESULTS: Most Asian medical schools and their students appear to be positive about adapting to PBL in their curriculum. The positive and negative observations appear to be similar to those experienced in non-Asian medical schools. The problems that arose for students in Asian medical schools in the early stages of implementing PBL appear to have been overcome after a period of adjustment with the help of supportive and open-minded tutors. The reports also suggested that trigger problems should be carefully designed to make them relevant and interesting for the students. CONCLUSION: Strong support from the academic administrators (dean and other staff responsible for implementation of the curriculum) in the introduction of PBL into the curriculum and careful training of both faculty and students appear to be key factors to ensure the successful implementation of PBL in Asian medical schools.     

Evaluating the spoken English proficiency of graduates of foreign medical schools

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to gather additional evidence for the validity and reliability of spoken English proficiency ratings provided by trained standardized patients (SPs) in high-stakes clinical skills examination. METHOD: Over 2500 candidates who took the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates' (ECFMG) Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) were studied. The CSA consists of 10 or 11 timed clinical encounters. Standardized patients evaluate spoken English proficiency and interpersonal skills in every encounter. Generalizability theory was used to estimate the consistency of spoken English ratings. Validity coefficients were calculated by correlating summary English ratings with CSA scores and other external criterion measures. Mean spoken English ratings were also compared by various candidate background variables. RESULTS: The reliability of the spoken English ratings, based on 10 independent evaluations, was high. The magnitudes of the associated variance components indicated that the evaluation of a candidate's spoken English proficiency is unlikely to be affected by the choice of cases or SPs used in a given assessment. Proficiency in spoken English was related to native language (English versus other) and scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). DISCUSSION: The pattern of the relationships, both within assessment components and with external criterion measures, suggests that valid measures of spoken English proficiency are obtained. This result, combined with the high reproducibility of the ratings over encounters and SPs, supports the use of trained SPs to measure spoken English skills in a simulated medical environment.