Using the cross-cultural care survey to assess cultural competency in graduate medical education.

BACKGROUND: Cultural competency is an important part of medical policy and practice, yet the evidence base for the effectiveness of training in this area is weak. One reason is the lack of valid, reliable, and feasible tools to quantify measures of knowledge, skill, and attitudes before and/or after cultural training. Given that cultural competency is a critical aspect of "professionalism" and "interpersonal and communication skills," such a tool would aid in assessing the impact of such training in residency programs.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to enhance the feasibility and extend the validity of a tool to assess cultural competency in resident physicians. The work contributes to efforts to evaluate resident preparedness for working with diverse patient populations.
METHOD: Eighty-four residents (internal medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics-gynecology, and surgery) completed the Cross-Cultural Care Survey (CCCS) to assess their self-reported knowledge, skill, and attitudes regarding the provision of cross-cultural care. The study entailed descriptive analyses, factor analysis, internal consistency, and validity tests using bivariate correlations.
RESULTS: Feasibility of using the CCCS was demonstrated with reduced survey completion time and ease of administration, and the survey reliably measures knowledge, skill, and attitudes for providing cross-cultural care. Resident characteristics and amount of postgraduate training relate differently to the 3 different subscales of the CCCS.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirmed that the CCCS is a reliable and valid tool to assess baseline attitudes of cultural competency across specialties in residency programs. Implications of the subscale scores for designing training programs are discussed.