When working in a profession where patients from a multitude of cultural backgrounds are encountered daily, it is essential for staff to be culturally competent as a minimum and culturally proficient in principle. Cultural competence can be described as the ability to participate appropriately and effectively in both personal and professional intercultural settings, and with many headlines shining a light on problems linked to unconscious bias (particularly implicit racial bias), such as those documenting racial trends in maternal mortality, diagnosis of late stage breast cancer and receipt of pain medication, it is increasingly important to implement changes to work against this. 

For NHS staff, there is an optional course available on cultural competence, which has 6 learning objectives,  ‘ describing the key components of culturally competent service, describing what being culturally competent means, explaining the importance of self awareness and using this to understand the impact prejudices, beliefs, values and cultural roots have on interactions and care of patients from different social or cultural groups, describing the impact of making assumptions based on individuals’ cultural background, and explaining the term ‘cultural safety’.  (https://ihv.org.uk/for-health-visitors/resources-for-members/resource/e-learning/hee-cultural-competence-e-learning/ ) 

I propose that all students on healthcare courses should receive interactive, thorough training on cultural competence, as higher education allows a safe space for students to make mistakes and become confident in cultural competence before they qualify, which would provide students with the tools to more comfortably challenge biases, reducing instances of poor experiences with patients and coworkers as a result of a lack of cultural competence, from microaggressions to health inequalities. It is better and easier to educate earlier than it is to correct bad habits.

I am in the process of writing a small essay to send to my own medical school to put forward ideas of possible ways to implement teaching covering this as well as pitching its importance. I hope that in the near future healthcare students can receive cultural competence training as part of their formal education and I would like to use this petition to demonstrate the demand for cultural competence training.

I would appreciate if you would support this petition and write what cultural competence training would mean for you and if you are a student at Hull York medical school, please sign off with ' -hyms student' 

Here are the links to some resources I have found while writing this essay

Our NHS People: Unconscious bias, a self guided course ( https://people.nhs.uk/guides/the-impact-of-stereotyping-clark-doll-test/steps/unconscious-bias-suggested-but-needs-refining/ )

Tackling Unconscious Bias in the NHS, a presentation by Rikki Arundel ( https://www.rdash.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Unconscious-Bias-Rikki-Arundel.pdf )

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals. Unconscious bias. A word document ( https://www.bfwh.nhs.uk/onehr/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Unconscious-bias-v4-Sept2616.pdf )

What is cultural proficiency? A guide sharing various tools  to practice cultural proficiency ( https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/9225_book_item_9225.pdf#:~:text=Cultural%20proficiency%20is%20an%20inside-out%20approach%2C%20which%20focuses,sense%20of%20entitlement%20withoutthreatening%20one%E2%80%99s%20feelings%20of%20worth )