Cultural competency is the ability to understand how to treat others the way they want to be treated, rather than the way you would want to be treated. Cultural competency in medicine is being aware of the intersection of culture and medicine, and taking into account a patient's unique sociocultural background when making a diagnosis, prescribing a treatment regimen, and nurturing the patient-physician bond. 

Doctors are people, and people are capable of prejudice and discrimination. But, in medicine, there is no place for prejudice and discrimination because a patient’s life is at stake. Stereotyping a customer and assuming that they cannot afford a certain product is emotionally hurtful, but it is far less dangerous than stereotyping a patient and misdiagnosing a life-threatening condition.

With the stakes this high, it is vital that doctors understand the intersection of culture and medicine, and they understand it as soon as their journey into medicine begins.

The purpose of this petition, alongside the proposals linked here, is two-fold:

1. We are asking all undergraduate institutions supporting pre-med students to offer a cultural competency course to expose students to cross-cultural training early on.

2. We are asking the Association of American Medical Colleges to take action and require all pre-medical students to take a cultural competency course prior to entering medical school.

Cultural competency courses exist in medical school right now, but multiple studies have reported how these courses are not enough. 20 to 25 percent of medical school graduates do not feel prepared to provide effective cross-cultural care, despite the integration of cultural competency courses in their curriculum.

While the cultural competency courses themselves could be altered in the medical school curriculum, that change is not enough. Students need to be aware of these issues early on, meaning during their pre-med requisites.

Professionals who encounter and interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds early in their training are better equipped to serve the nation’s multicultural society. Perspectives are broadened over time, and the more time we can give students to learn about the racial, ethnic, and cultural differences that they will be dealing with as medical professionals, the better the quality of care patients will receive.

The purpose of premedical requisites is to prepare students for the content which they will face as doctors in medical school and beyond; understanding and addressing the culture of a patient is a huge component of practicing medicine, meaning curriculum focusing on the basics of cultural competency should be incorporated at the pre-med stage, ensuring that students are better prepared to handle the more specifics of cross-cultural care during medical school and beyond.

Waiting until medical school for cultural competency training is simply not an option anymore. Not when thousands of patients are in danger of being treated by doctors who do not understand their life.