Teaching cultural competency through a pharmacy skills and applications course series

Abstract

Objective. To incorporate cultural competency in a Pharmacy Skills and Application course series and assess the level of cultural competency in students who did and did not complete the courses. Design. The course series focused on cultural competency throughout the PharmD curriculum and included such activities as self-reflection, lecture, diversity service-learning, case studies, and discussion. Assessment. The Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals - Revised (IAPCC-R) was used to measure cultural competence in 2 cohorts: the last class preceding implementation of the new course series and the first class after its implementation. Overall scores between the 2 cohorts were not significantly different; however, 2 subscale scores were significantly higher among students who completed the course series: cultural skills (p 5 0.021) and cultural encounters (p 5 0.048). Conclusions. The Pharmacy Skills and Application course series appears to improve some aspects of cultural competence in pharmacy students, but may not be sufficient to elicit change in all areas.