Cultural Competency in Health Care: Evaluating the Outcomes of a Cultural Competency Training Among Health Care Professionals

Our study shows that a cultural competency training program that integrates key topics as recommended by the Institute of Medicine and includes Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care standards improves the knowledge and skills of health care providers and administrators. Following the training, the participants self-reported not only an enhanced understanding of the health care experiences of patients with diverse backgrounds, but also an improvement in their skills to effectively work in cross-cultural situations. In addition, our study offers a reliable, innovative, and time-efficient strategy-post-then-pre method-for evaluating the outcomes of 4-hour cultural competency training programs.