Track 2-2b
Clinical

Training for Cultural Competence in the Clinical Encounter: Successful Techniques

For three years, Kaiser Permanente Southern California has conducted daylong seminars focused on in-depth training of clinicians in the art of conducting culturally sensitive clinical encounters. Central to the training are carefully scripted scenarios acted out by the Mighty Kaiser Art Players (our in-house acting troupe) which portray good and bad encounters between clinicians and patients of diverse cultural backgrounds. Following the scenarios, interactive discussion focused on the issues raised takes place between the clinicians, medical anthropologists and a physician leader. The use of acted scenarios provides an opportunity to bring up many subtle and not so subtle issues that may be barriers to good communication between patients and health professionals. Cultural misunderstandings are vividly portrayed. Preparation of the scripts requires the combined skills of the scriptwriter, physician and medical anthropologist. Specific skills for increasing communication across cultural and linguistic barriers are discussed. The clinicians also learn successful techniques from each other.
 Since Kaiser Permanente clinicians are themselves from many cultures they are introduced to the concept of "cultural consults." Participants are given a syllabus in which the scenarios are summarized with accompanying discussion points that often include culture-specific information relating to the situation portrayed. Skills and competencies needed for interacting with diverse patients are also listed and discussed. Resources for further study (including the Kaiser Permanente Cultural Competence Department Webpage) are given. This presentation will provide details of these trainings.

M. Jean Gilbert, PhD
Director, Department of Cultural Competence, California Division
Kaiser Permanente
393 E. Walnut, LR-6
Pasadena, CA 91208
Phone: (626) 564-3743
FAX: (626) 564-3747
Jean.x.gilbert@kp.org

M. Jean Gilbert, PhD (University of California, Santa Barbara) is a medical anthropologist with a specialization in social epidemiology and prevention research. She was Scholar in Latino Alcohol Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1984 to 1990 and a member of the Epidemiology and Prevention Study Group, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, from 1986 to 1990. She served on the National Research Council, Institute of Medicine Committee on Alcoholism Prevention Research in 1989-1991 and as a consultant to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Her initial studies in California and Mexico examined family structure and familial relationships in the two countries. Later, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, she conducted cross-cultural research on maternal and child health, focusing on prenatal and perinatal issues and studied cultural issues impacting health services utilization under a grant from the National Office of Child Development. Her major publications are in the field of cross-cultural addiction research, emphasizing gender and family roles as they relate to use of alcohol and use of addiction services. Through these research projects, she has developed an expertise in the delivery of healthcare to minority families She has served on the Cultural and Linguistics Task Force for MediCal Managed Care, California Department of Health Services. Currently, she is the Director of Cultural Competence for Kaiser Permanente California where she collaborates on the design of cultural competency curricula for health care providers, and provides expert consulting on the structuring of service delivery to special populations. She is the series editor for Kaiser Permanente’s physician handbooks on delivering culturally competent care to specific groups.  NEXT >

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