Abstract

The relationship between cultural competence among healthcare professionals and the quality of health care ultimately provided to patients is internationally recognized. It is incumbent upon educators, therefore, to utilize the appropriate teaching tools to create learning and growth in the area of cultural competence among students who represent our future healthcare leaders and practitioners. This study, conducted in the Health Sciences department at the California State University, Northridge, compared the approaches of two different programs, Health Administration and Radiologic Sciences, as they introduced cultural competence training to students. Researchers’ recommendations include implementing a cultural competence assessment for both students and faculty to further evaluate the comparative efficacy of the methods of the two programs. It was also recommended that the Health Administration program implements the existing standard practice of the Radiologic Sciences program, to conduct an annual evaluation of preceptor assessments of the cultural competence of individual students. It is expected that more comprehensive recommendations will be made following the implementation of these initial recommendations.