Cultivating Cultural Competence

Cultural competence (CC) is understanding how healthcare is delivered and responding to the needs of a diverse population (Tseng and Streltzer, 2008). Unconsciously, personal cultural interpretation is brought to a situation, which can influence how healthcare is provided. Improving CC reduces health inequalities and develops sustainable, holistic practitioners. First-year pharmacy students participated in CC workshops undertaking a range of activities including evaluating a pharmacist-patient video consultation with language barriers and patient beliefs. Learning outcomes included awareness of terms such as culture and CC, inclusive language, and consideration of how health and medicines are affected by culture and beliefs. Students worked in small, diverse groups to share different views of cultures and to enable collaborative learning. Post-workshop, students completed a self-reflection tool to raise awareness of their strengths, bias, and developmental needs in their CC journey. Post-workshop surveys were distributed. This lightning talk examines the knowledge gained and perspectives of students.