Teaching cultural competency through narrative medicine: intersections of classroom and community.
BACKGROUND
Cultural competency and narrative medicine are perspectives that assist medical educators in teaching effective, empathetic communication and service delivery to a variety of patients.


OBJECTIVE
In this article, we describe a unique educational activity at the crossroads of these perspectives in which pediatric residents participated in a monthly reading and discussion group with staff members of an inner-city Dominican American community organization.


RESULTS
By discussing a literary text rather than cases and facilitating discussions with particular attention to power, not only were historic conflicts between the groups circumvented, but an environment was created in which discussants drew heavily from personal and professional experiences. Qualitative evaluation of both groups revealed improved self-reported understanding of (a) issues of cultural diversity, (b) issues of medical culture, and (c) physicians' attitudes and behaviors in practice.


CONCLUSIONS
Methodologies drawing from cultural competency and narrative medicine can be used to help physicians work in multidisciplinary, multicultural teams in and out of the medical institution.
DasGupta
Sayantani
S
Division of General Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York 10032, USA. sd2030@columbia.edu
Meyer
Dodi
D
Calero-Breckheimer
Ayxa
A
Costley
Alex W
AW
Guillen
Sobeira
S
D001290:Attitude / Q000208:ethnology; D001519:Behavior; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003153:Community Health Services; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*