Self-administered instruments to measure cultural competence of health professionals: a systematic review.
BACKGROUND
Tools that measure knowledge, attitudes, and skills reflecting cultural competence of health professionals have not been comprehensively identified, described, or critiqued.


CONCLUSIONS
We systematically reviewed English-language articles published from 1980 through June 2003 that evaluated the effectiveness of cultural competence curricula targeted at health professionals by using at least one self-administered tool. We abstracted information about targeted providers, evaluation methods, curricular content, and the psychometric properties of each tool. We included 45 articles in our review. A total of 45 unique instruments (32 learner self-assessments, 13 written exams) were used in the 45 articles. One third (15/45) of the tools had demonstrated either validity or reliability, and only 13% (6/45) had demonstrated both reliability and validity.


CONCLUSIONS
Most studies of cultural competence training used self-administered tools that have not been validated. The results of cultural competence training could be interpreted more accurately if validated tools were used.
Gozu
Aysegul
A
Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Beach
Mary Catherine
MC
Price
Eboni G
EG
Gary
Tiffany L
TL
Robinson
Karen
K
Palacio
Ana
A
Smarth
Carole
C
Jenckes
Mollie
M
Feuerstein
Carolyn
C
Bass
Eric B
EB
Powe
Neil R
NR
Cooper
Lisa A
LA
D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D011361:Professional Competence; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires