Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112284

Michele Yehieli, DrPH¹, Mark Grey, PhD¹, and Gene M. Lutz, PhD². (1) Iowa Project EXPORT Center of Excellence on Health Disparities, University of Northern Iowa, 220 WRC, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0241, 319 273-7965, michele.yehieli@uni.edu, (2) Center for Social & Behavioral Research, University of Northern Iowa, 221 Sabin Hall, Cedar Falls, IA 50614

The reduction of health disparities is one of the most pressing public health priorities in the United States today. Leading national agencies and commissions, through multiple planning documents, regularly cite cultural competency among health providers as a key strategy to addressing health equity issues. To this end, the Iowa Project EXPORT Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at the University of Northern Iowa, an organization funded by the National Institutes of Health, has developed and implemented an award-winning, 15-semester hour comprehensive cultural competency training program for students and health professionals. This training program consists of four levels, each of which builds upon the knowledge and skills presented in the previous level. The curricular program also features both theoretical, as well as experiential learning models, in its training. In Level One, health students study about minority health and health disparity issues from a variety of interdisciplinary classes across campus. During Level Two, students implement a number of short-term, culturally appropriate projects with diverse and underserved populations in nearby communities under guided faculty supervision. In Level Three, students participate in short-term work trips with faculty to low-income minority communities in the United States and abroad, where they work in teams on culturally appropriate public health programs. In Level Four, students then participate in long-term, intensive internships as integral staff with host agencies around the world, working on health disparity projects. This cultural competency training model has now been replicated by other universities, and has also been converted to an on-line format to allow for distance learning for working health professionals. To date, the curricular program has trained hundreds of students and professionals, and served more than 40,000 at-risk clients.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand how cultural competency among health providers can reduce health disparities and improve patient outcomes, and to learn about a model curricular training program that trains health students and professionals to work with diverse and underserved populations.

Keywords: Cultural Competency, Health Workers Training

Related Web page: www.iowahealthdisparities.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.