University of Pittsburgh

Health Sciences Diversity | Excellence in Health Professions Education

“Health care is dependent on training professionals to provide care without reservation. Our schools must prepare students to embrace people of different races and cultures – providing optimal health care to all.”

Willa Doswell, PhD, School of Nursing Faculty

Students & Faculty

Faculty & Trainees -
Cultural Competence Resources

Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations (Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991). Cultural competence is the mechanism educators and practitioners use to move toward closing gaps in health care. Increasing cultural competence empowers health care providers to be respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients, and can help bring about positive health outcomes.

The University of Pittsburgh is committed to addressing health issues among ethnic and racial minorities and other under-served populations. Our Schools of the Health Sciences are engaged in a learning process designed to enhance the cultural competence of all constituents in our academic communities.

 

Below is a sampling of discipline-specific resources. This list is certainly not exhaustive; if there are resources not listed, please email us and we will gladly include them.

Dental Medicine >

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences >

Medicine >

Mental Health >

Nursing >

Pharmacy >

Public Health >

Other Resources, Webcasts, Modules, Assessments, and Articles >

 

Dental Medicine

American Dental Association - Community Brief - A collection of articles on culture and dentistry.

Journal of Dental Education

Cultural Competence: Dentistry and Medicine Learning from One Another

Culturally Sensitive Oral Health Educational Materials for Older African Americans

"Developing Cultural Competence and Social Responsibility in Preclinical Dental Students".

Differences in Quality between Dental Practices Associated with Race and Income Mix of Patients

Sufficiency of the U.S. Oral Health Workforce in the Coming Decade: A Workshop

"The Role of Cultural Competency in Health Disparities: Training of Primary Care Medical Practitioners in Children's Oral Health"

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Center for Cultural Competence

 

Health and Rehabilitation

Integration of Cultural Competence in Physical Therapist Education

Book: Race, Culture and Disability: Rehabilitation Science and Practice

 

Medicine

Distribution of Medical School Graduates by Race/Ethnicity

Parental Distrust in Medicine

Rectifying Institutional Biases in Medical Research

The Case for Cultural Competence in Health Professions Education

National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) - Minority Health Concerns: Cultural Competency Resources

Tools for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (TACCT)
"Medical Education and Cultural Competence: A Strategy to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care," an AAMC project made possible by The Commonwealth Fund, developed to assess cultural-competence training in medical schools.

University of Washington School of Medicine. Ethics in Medicine
Cross-cultural issues and diverse beliefs with an emphasis on pediatrics.

 

Mental Health

APA Guidelines for Providers of Psychological Services to Ethnic, Linguistic, and Culturally Diverse Populations

Cultural Competence in Serving Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Problems

Cultural Psychology Links by Subtopic

McGill University Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry

 

Nursing Resources

American Arab Nurses Association

Minnesota Organization of Leaders in Nursing

National Student Nurses Association
Articles on cultural competence in nursing, from the February/March 2006 issue of Imprint.

Transcultural Nursing Society

 

Pharmacy Practice

A Multicultural Approach to Providing Pharmacy Services

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
Contains a list of cultural competency resources for pharmacists and other health professionals.

Cultural Competence in Health Care and Its Implications for Pharmacy

Cultural Competency in Pharmaceutical Care Delivery
A training template for a one-day pharmacy student elective course.

Intercultural Disposition and Communication Competence of Future Pharmacists
Article that examines the influence of an educational intervention on pharmacy students’ intercultural disposition and perceived communication competence.

 

Public Health

ASPH Diversity and Culture - Phase 2 Competencies

Center for Minority Health - University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

HRSA Indicators of Cultural Competence in Health Care Delivery Organizations: An Organizational Cultural Competence Assessment Profile

Campus Accessibility

Click on the map to learn about University of Pittsburgh’s accessible entrances. More >

Campus Map