gms | German Medical Science

Background: Medical students will increasingly be faced with the complexity of cultural diversity in their future careers, such as migration phenomena, patient mobility, religious and age issues, etc. With the pioneering implementation of an elective course on 'Intercultural Competence' the Medical University of Graz is taking the challenges into consideration which our rapidly changing society will pose for future medical doctors.

Objectives:

1.

To raise awareness for cultural values, perceptions and beliefs, to reflect one's own cultural backgrounds

2.

To lead the students to cultural competence and demonstrate how it influences innovative intercultural health care and research

3.

To prepare students adequately for an increasingly diverse working environment and for interculturally sensitive care and patient-physician interactions

4.

To supply them with tools to feel and act more comfortably in novel, complex situations

5.

A long-term objective is to implement intercultural competence as an interdisciplinary, cross-cutting issue throughout the entire curriculum.

Method: Besides theoretical input on culture in general, intercultural communication, diversity, etc. the training focuses mainly on interactive group work and sensitising exercises, specific case studies and role plays. The applied interactive methods centre on fostering self-awareness as well as intercultural awareness and sensitivity. The course has 1 ECTS.

Results and conclusions: First results were gained directly after the sessions through personal feedback by the students who confirmed the importance of the topic for their future medical careers. They attested a high level of learning outcomes due to the use of interactive and sensitising teaching methods and valued the innovative design of the programme. Furthermore, the authors conducted a survey (Intercultural Effectiveness Scale – IES) with all students which measures dimensions like self-awareness, exploration, global mindset and emotional resilience. The analysis of the student group results showed that almost all IES dimensions could be found although a majority of the students could be identified as 'explorers', a profile that shows open-mindedness towards situations, values and norms that are different from your own.

In the future it is planned to extend the course to 2 ECTS and to invite a Professor of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy to teach about interculturally sensitive patient-physician interaction.

Main message: By using awareness and sensitising methods, this course is designed to enable future medical doctors to respond effectively to diversity in health care and to interculturally challenging situations.