{"title":"An Innovative Approach to Cultural Competency and Spirituality Education for Medical Students.","authors":"Andrew M Tannous, Joseph R Fuchs, Paritosh Kaul","doi":"10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001841","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Professional organizations have recognized the need to educate and empower medical students for equitable and inclusive care. One component of providing such care for patients of diverse backgrounds is culturally sensitive and patient-centered communication. The aim of this work was to improve skills in culture competency and spiritual history taking by implementing an interactive, educational session for undergraduate medical students. The session included an introduction to spiritual history, education about Kleinman's Explanatory Model, and an integrated case incorporating spiritual history taking and cultural understanding.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The intervention employed didactics and dyad role-playing clinical scenarios. Learners included first-year (n = 104) and fourth-year (n = 54) medical students. Participants completed an 8-item pre-post survey to assess the value of cultural competence and spiritual history taking (attitude), importance of assessing cognition (knowledge), and importance of assessing the learner's ability to practice this history (skill). Medical student religiosity was measured using the Duke University Religion Index.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>For both groups of learners, there was a statistically significant improvement between the pre- and postintervention surveys in medical students' attitude, knowledge, and skill. Results of the Duke University Religion Index found that a majority of participants infrequently attended organized religious services. Despite this, a statically significant proportion of participants agreed that it is important to identify patients' religion/spirituality following the intervention (<i>P</i> < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The educational intervention used in this study fills a curricular gap in effectively integrating cultural competency and spiritual history-taking education. Limitations include that the study did not explore the long-term retention of knowledge or performance in the clinical setting.</p>","PeriodicalId":22043,"journal":{"name":"Southern Medical Journal","volume":"118 6","pages":"313-318"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Southern Medical Journal","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001841","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: Professional organizations have recognized the need to educate and empower medical students for equitable and inclusive care. One component of providing such care for patients of diverse backgrounds is culturally sensitive and patient-centered communication. The aim of this work was to improve skills in culture competency and spiritual history taking by implementing an interactive, educational session for undergraduate medical students. The session included an introduction to spiritual history, education about Kleinman's Explanatory Model, and an integrated case incorporating spiritual history taking and cultural understanding.
Methods: The intervention employed didactics and dyad role-playing clinical scenarios. Learners included first-year (n = 104) and fourth-year (n = 54) medical students. Participants completed an 8-item pre-post survey to assess the value of cultural competence and spiritual history taking (attitude), importance of assessing cognition (knowledge), and importance of assessing the learner's ability to practice this history (skill). Medical student religiosity was measured using the Duke University Religion Index.
Results: For both groups of learners, there was a statistically significant improvement between the pre- and postintervention surveys in medical students' attitude, knowledge, and skill. Results of the Duke University Religion Index found that a majority of participants infrequently attended organized religious services. Despite this, a statically significant proportion of participants agreed that it is important to identify patients' religion/spirituality following the intervention (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The educational intervention used in this study fills a curricular gap in effectively integrating cultural competency and spiritual history-taking education. Limitations include that the study did not explore the long-term retention of knowledge or performance in the clinical setting.
期刊介绍：
As the official journal of the Birmingham, Alabama-based Southern Medical Association (SMA), the Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) has for more than 100 years provided the latest clinical information in areas that affect patients'' daily lives. Now delivered to individuals exclusively online, the SMJ has a multidisciplinary focus that covers a broad range of topics relevant to physicians and other healthcare specialists in all relevant aspects of the profession, including medicine and medical specialties, surgery and surgery specialties; child and maternal health; mental health; emergency and disaster medicine; public health and environmental medicine; bioethics and medical education; and quality health care, patient safety, and best practices. Each month, articles span the spectrum of medical topics, providing timely, up-to-the-minute information for both primary care physicians and specialists. Contributors include leaders in the healthcare field from across the country and around the world. The SMJ enables physicians to provide the best possible care to patients in this age of rapidly changing modern medicine.
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