Cultural Competency Training Requirements in Graduate Medical Education

Abstract Background Cultural competency is an important skill that prepares physicians to care for patients from diverse backgrounds. Objective We reviewed Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirements and relevant documents from the ACGME website to evaluate competency requirements across specialties. Methods The program requirements for each specialty and its subspecialties were reviewed from December 2011 through February 2012. The review focused on the 3 competency domains relevant to culturally competent care: professionalism, interpersonal and communication skills, and patient care. Specialty and subspecialty requirements were assigned a score between 0 and 3 (from least specific to most specific). Given the lack of a standardized cultural competence rating system, the scoring was based on explicit mention of specific keywords. Results A majority of program requirements fell into the low- or no-specificity score (1 or 0). This included 21 core specialties (leading...