Measuring Physicians’ and Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward Caring for Immigrant Patients
- 18 May 2010
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Evaluation & the Health Professions
- Vol. 33 (4), 452-472
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0163278710370157
Abstract
It is generally believed that culturally competent clinical practice depends in part on the development of positive attitudes toward the care of immigrant patients. However, few tools exist to measure such attitudes in physicians. The authors operationalized ‘‘culturally competent attitudes’’ to include a high level of interest in caring for immigrant patients, an acceptance of the responsibility of doctors and hospitals to adapt to immigrant patients’ needs, and the opinion that understanding the patient’s psychosocial context is particularly important when caring for immigrant patients. The authors then assessed these attitudes and opinions among a sample of 619 Geneva doctors and medical students using a self-administered questionnaire and explored their association to respondents’ personal characteristics and professional experience. The authors found that both personal characteristics and professional experience were associated with attitudes toward caring for immigrant patients. In particular, the perceived importance of understanding the psychosocial context when caring for migrants was higher among medical students, women, Swiss nationals, those with greater interest in caring for immigrant patients and those who had received training in cultural competence. However, it is unclear whether cultural competence training and clinical context lead to the development of more positive attitudes or whether medical students and physicians who already have positive attitudes are more likely to participate in such training.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Viewpoint: Physician, Know Thyself: The Professional Culture of Medicine as a Framework for Teaching Cultural CompetenceAcademic Medicine, 2008
- Self-Administered Instruments to Measure Cultural Competence of Health Professionals: A Systematic ReviewTeaching and Learning in Medicine, 2007
- Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward Underserved Patients: A Longitudinal Comparison of Problem-Based and Traditional Medical CurriculaAdvances in Health Sciences Education, 2006
- Cultural Competence and Medical Education: Many Names, Many Perspectives, One GoalAcademic Medicine, 2006
- Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The intercultural development inventoryInternational Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2003
- Assessing changes in intercultural sensitivity among physician trainees using the intercultural development inventoryInternational Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2003
- Applying Theory to the Design of Cultural Competency Training for Medical StudentsAcademic Medicine, 2003
- Cross-cultural Medical EducationAcademic Medicine, 2003
- Developing a questionnaire to assess student awareness of the need to be culturally aware in clinical practiceMedical Teacher, 2001
- Medical Students' Attitudes Toward Providing Care for the UnderservedJAMA, 1993