Culturally competent in medical education (C2ME)
Europe is becoming more socially and culturally diverse as a result of the increasing migration, but the physicians are largely unprepared. Culturally competent curricula and teachers are needed to ensure cultural competence (CC) among health professionals and to tackle inequalities in health between different ethnic groups. The purpose of the C2ME project was to develop guidelines and tools to assist medical schools and educators with the implementation of CC in the education of medical teachers and the pedagogical leaders as well as to incorporate CC in the curriculum.
The project conducted a Delphi study to devise a framework of competencies for diversity teaching and a survey that explored the concrete needs of medical teachers to teach ethnic and cultural diversity. Subsequently, an online course was developed to meet these needs. A questionnaire to assess possible gaps and flaws in the curriculum of Medical programmes in regards to CC was also developed, and distributed to 12 medical programmes. Based on data from the questionnaire practical guidelines for heads of departments were developed and published.
What were the main results?
The study revealed that in general there is room for improvement regarding CC in the European medical programmes. For example, most medical programmes do not offer CC training for teachers within the programme and resources spent on initiatives related to CC are few. Furthermore, most of the medical programmes acknowledge that the training the students receive in relation to CC is not adequate for future jobs in the health care service in their respective country. Additionally, the survey among the teachers found that 60% assess that they are prepared for teaching CC and approximately 70% are interested in receiving training in different CC elements. Moreover, approximately 75% of the teachers in the survey think it is important to include CC in curriculum. You can find two of the articles here.
Who participated in the project?
There were 13 partners from 12 countries (12 EU + 1 US) involved in the project and the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam was the coordinating partner. From MESU, Janne Sørensen, Allan Krasnik and Marie Nørredam participated.
Who had funded the project?
The project were fund by the EACEA Erasmus Lifelong Learning Program.
When did the project take place (start and end date)
The project was conducted in the period of October 1st 2013 to September 30th 2015.
Contact person
Janne Sørensen, jans@sund.ku.dk