Cultural competence or speaking the patient’s language?

Abstract

Cultural competence has become yet another buzz word in the education of healthcare professionals. According to Prasad et al., ‘culturally competent care assumes that healthcare providers can learn a quantifiable set of attitudes and communication skills that will allow them to work effectively within the cultural context of the patients they come across’. The questions that arise, therefore, are whether clinical trainees are being fully supported to acquire this fundamental skill and whether overloaded curricula can accommodate the ongoing demand for more ‘teaching time’.