Abstract:
The United States has an extensive and horrendous history as it relates to social injustices
frequently experienced by People of Color (POC). One form of social injustice experienced by
POC is what society commonly refers to as health disparities. When seeking healthcare services,
POC reported that they frequently face problems such as inadequate time with providers during
their appointments, discrimination, and insensitivity to their cultural beliefs and
systems. Cultural Competence training put forth by social work practitioners has been shown to
be an effective strategy for increasing knowledge and skills for providers in healthcare settings as
well as decreasing negative thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This project seeks to
provide empirical data to existing literature regarding the efficacy of cultural diversity education
training amongst key stakeholders in a healthcare setting. This work also seeks to ascertain
whether training programs in healthcare settings should offer a more systematic approach when
providing cultural competence training. This work involved evaluating a proposed 6-hour multi-session cultural diversity education training program. The knowledge and skills amongst the
participants slightly improved while negative thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors slightly
decreased. Study participants’ responses in the focus group affirmed the need for training
programs to offer a more systematic approach that includes more interactive activities as well as
a debriefing focus group to aid in effective and efficient learning for trainees. Implications for
training programs regarding utilizing cultural diversity education training to help reduce racial
health disparities and future research opportunities are discussed.
