title: Student reflections on learning cross-cultural skills through a 'cultural competence' OSCE.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical schools use OSCEs (objective structured clinical examinations) to assess students' clinical knowledge and skills, but the use of OSCEs in the teaching and assessment of cross-cultural care has not been well described.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine medical students' reflections on a cultural competence OSCE station as an educational experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students at Harvard Medical School in Boston completed a 'cultural competence' OSCE station (about a patient with uncontrolled hypertension and medication non-adherence). Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of twenty-two second year medical students, which were recorded, transcribed, and analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students' reflections on what they learned as the essence of the case encompassed three categories: (1) eliciting the patient's perspective on their illness; (2) examining how and why patients take their medications and inquiring about alternative therapies; and (3) exploring the range of social and cultural factors associated with medication non-adherence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A cultural competence OSCE station that focuses on eliciting patients' perspectives and exploring medication non-adherence can serve as a unique and valuable teaching tool. The cultural competence OSCE station may be one pedagogic method for incorporating cross-cultural care into medical school curricula.
authors.affiliation: Center for Reducing Health Disparities, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. elizabeth.miller@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Alexander R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002983:Clinical Competence; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*