Cultural Competency among faculty at Complementary and Alternative Medicine Institutions

Cultural Competency in healthcare refers to being aware of knowledge based skills required to provide clinical care to patients from a particular ethnic or racial group. According to the Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the Department of Health Human Services (DHHS) all definitions on cultural competence have a common element, which requires adjustment or recognition of one's own culture to understand the culture of a patient. It has been shown that cultural competency of health care providers enhances patient satisfaction, and increases greater adherence to treatment regimen. Integrating cultural competence curricula in health professions training may address the healthcare demands of a rapidly growing racial and multiethnic population. While conventional medical schools, dental and pharmacy schools have adopted approaches for incorporating cultural competency training in curricula, awareness and introduction of cultural competency in CAM curricula is not very well known except in a couple of chiropractic institutions. This paper would attempt to identify the awareness and implementation of topics on cultural competency by the acupuncture and chiropractic faculty at CAM institutions in their courses by conducting a survey.