Assessment strategies for the evaluation of multicultural competency outcomes for physician assistant students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Diversity in Healthcare curricular sequence in the Marquette University Physician Assistant program. A new course sequence Diversity in Healthcare was implemented and assessed using a combination of self reported surveys and concluding with students completing a culturally sensitive OSCE examination. One control group and two cohorts of experimental participants (totaling 87 students) participated by completing the MGUDS, CoBRAS, TEST, and the IAPCC survey tools. Three raters evaluated each students videotaped OSCE examine using the CCCI instrument. Results were mixed as the first cohort's cultural sensitivity decreased while the second cohort's cultural sensitivity increased during the evaluation period. Both experimental cohorts demonstrated significant use of culturally sensitive interviewing skills during the OSCE examination compared to the controls. A cultural competence curriculum seems to be associated with increases of cultural competence for some students. Cultural competence education of healthcare professionals is evolving since the start of this study. More research is needed to determine the factors (eg. course format) that may have the greatest influence on increasing student cultural competence.
This paper has been withdrawn.