title: Cultural competence skills in a dental curriculum: A review.
abstract: This study aimed to analyse and evaluate the extent of transcultural content in the current curricula of the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) and Master of Nursing Science (MNSc) courses at the University of Melbourne.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted in two phases: a quantitative review and assessment of the current DDS, BOH and MNSc curricula at the University of Melbourne, and interviews with various staff from the University of Melbourne who were responsible for curriculum development for these courses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Staff from the DDS, BOH and MNSc courses concurred on the importance of transcultural skills, the necessity of covering cultural issues relevant to the main ethnic groups in Australia, obstacles faced and the lack of evaluation methods for cultural competency. The nursing curriculum had the most extensive coverage of transcultural content throughout both years of the course (total 71 formal contact hours; mean 36 formal contact hours per year). In contrast, modules on transcultural skills were limited to the first two of the 3-year BOH course (54 hours; 18 hours) and only the first of the 4-year dental curriculum (40 hours; 10 hours).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The DDS course showed less time devoted to formal teaching of these concepts compared to the nursing and BOH courses despite showing a noticeable improvement from a previous assessment conducted in 2006. It is hoped that the DDS course continues to further increase the transcultural content and find ways to incorporate more transcultural education.
authors.affiliation: Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre, Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: R J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3061-843X
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Mariño
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghanim
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Barrow
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Morgan
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D054521:Cultural Competency; D003479:Curriculum; D004497:Education, Dental; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Australia; cultural competence; dental curriculum