Definition and Levels of Cultural Competency in Graduates of Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Study

Today, cultural competence is one of the important issues in the field of health because the most important factors in the development and development of the health system are the human resources with the necessary cultural competence along with other specialized competencies. Despite the importance of this term, it seems that due to the lack of consensus in the concept of cultural competence in medical education, a single and clear definition of it is not provided. The main objective of the present study was to study the comprehensive concept of cultural competence and its levels in medical education.
 

In this qualitative study, we first reviewed the international documents and articles through a library method. Then, in the second step, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 key informants on the field of cultural competence of medical graduates. In the third step, the results of the focus group meeting with the presence of 5 experts were discussed and the following findings were obtained.

In the definition that was presented using the analysis of the results of the interviews and also inspired by the research background and the final summary of the professorschr('39') meeting, it was stated  that "the competent graduate of medical sciences in terms of cultural competence is the one who has the ability to interact effectively with people who have different cultures (including the patient, his associates and colleagues) to provide more effective health care". Accordingly, cultural competence is classified into three levels of individual (human), university (graduate) and medical profession (multicultural understanding for university graduates).

Since cultural competence in Iran can be an appropriate response to the diversity of ethnicity and culture in society, it is suggested to provide a comprehensive concept of cultural competence in medical education programs in order to provide appropriate patterns of cultural competence in graduates. Medical science will also be addressed.