Skip to main content

Teaching Cultural Humility: Understanding Others by Reflecting on Ourselves

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Teaching Empathy in Healthcare

Abstract

Culture plays a key role in defining the predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating, and protective factors of illness etiology, which in turn drive treatment planning. Cultural humility is a concept by which providers can become more aware of the unique cultures of patients and communities, shifting away from a limited definition of culture as a finite body of ethnographic information to be mastered. This concept provides a framework for providers to develop empathy skills by continuously reflecting on their own biases, recognizing power dynamics and developing respectful partnerships with their patients and communities, which helps address the structural inequities that potentiate illness and impact recovery. The options, challenges, and limitations of teaching clinicians to practice cultural humility are explored, with some suggestions for curricular components.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Colby, S., & Ortman, J. (2014). Projections of the size and composition of the U.S. population: 2014 to 2060 (pp. 25–1143). Suitland: U.S. Census Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ring, J. M., & Ring, J. M. (2008). Curriculum for culturally responsive health care: The step-by-step guide for cultural competence training. New York: Radcliffe Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Institute of Medicine. (2013). Leveraging culture to address health inequalities: examples from native communities: Workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Cabán-Alemán, C. (2017). Cultural humility. In J. Tse & S. Y. Volpp (Eds.), A case-based approach to public psychiatry (pp. 29–36). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2016). Cultural competence. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://www.samhsa.gov/capt/applying-strategic-prevention/cultural-competence

  6. Tervalon, M. M. (1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 9(2), 117–125.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Comas-Díaz, L. L. (1991). Ethnocultural transference and countertransference in the therapeutic dyad. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(3), 392–402.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Betancourt, J. R., Green, A. R., Camillo, J. E., & Ananeh-Firempong, O. (1974). Defining cultural competence: A practical framework for addressing racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care. Public Health Reports, 118(4), 293–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  10. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Cultural formulation. In American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., pp. 749–759). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. US Department of Health and Human Services. National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://www.thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdfs/EnhancedNationalCLASStandards.pdf

  12. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. (2017). Common program requirements. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://www.acgme.org/What-We-Do/Accreditation/Common-Program-Requirements

  13. Chang, E. S., Simon, M., & Dong, X. (2012). Integrating cultural humility into health care professional education and training. Advances in Health Sciences Education: Theory and Practice, 17(2), 269–278.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Simmons, R., Chernett, N., Yuen, E., & Toth-Cohen, S. (2012). Teaching cultural humility and competence: a multi-disciplinary course for public health and health services students. College of population health lectures, presentations, workshops. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://jdc.jefferson.edu/hplectures/26

  15. Juarez, J. A. (2006). Bridging the gap: A curriculum to teach residents cultural humility. Family Medicine, 38(2), 97–102.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Schuessler, J. B. (2012). Reflective journaling and development of cultural humility in students. Nursing Education Perspectives, 33(2), 96–99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Hailey, D., Miller, A., & Yenawine, P. (2015). Understanding visual literacy: The visual thinking strategies approach. In D. M. Baylen & A. D’Alba (Eds.), Essentials of teaching and integrating visual and media literacy (pp. 49–73). Cham: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Klugman, C. M., Peel, J., & Beckmann-Mendez, D. (2011). Art rounds: Teaching interprofessional students visual thinking strategies at one school. Academic Medicine, 86(10), 1266–1271.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Reilly, J. M. (2005). Visual thinking strategies: A new role for art in medical education. Family Medicine, 37(4), 250–252.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Metzl, J. M., & Hansen, H. (2014). Structural competency: Theorizing a new medical engagement with stigma and inequality. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 126–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Carpenter-Song, E., Norquest Schwallie, M., & Longhofer, J. (2007). Cultural competence reexamined: Critique and directions for the future. Psychiatric Services, 58(10), 1362–1365.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Hansen, H. H. (2018). From cultural to structural competency: Training psychiatry residents to act on social determinants of health and institutional racism. JAMA Psychiatry, 75(2), 117–118.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carissa Cabán-Alemán .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Cabán-Alemán, C., King, J., Padilla, A., Tse, J. (2019). Teaching Cultural Humility: Understanding Others by Reflecting on Ourselves. In: Foster, A.E., Yaseen, Z.S. (eds) Teaching Empathy in Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29876-0_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics