UPENN SOM || Cultural Competency Medical Education Program || Resources

RESOURCES

Office for Diversity and Community Outreach in Undergraduate Medical Education
Office of Inclusion and Diversity in Graduate Medical Education
Center of Excellence for Diversity in Health Education and Research
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Cultural Effectiveness Initiative
Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP)
School of Nursing Course: Addressing Health Disparities in Urban Vulnerable Communities

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Community Outreach in Undergraduate Medical Education: Under the leadership of Bernett Johnson, MD, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Minority Affairs; Karen E. Hamilton, PhD, Assistant Dean for Multicultural Affairs and Director of Minority Affairs and Hilda Luiggi, MS, Associate Director for Minority Affairs, the Office of Minority Affairs is committed to the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students who are African-American, American Indian, Mainland Puerto Rican, and Mexican-American. Its administrators and minority students visit local high schools, undergraduate colleges, the Annual Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science and the Annual Biomedical Research Conferences to recruit students. To interest more young people in medical careers, recent minority graduates, with Dr. Karen Hamilton, have written Getting into Medical School: A Planning Guide for Minority Students which provides useful information and advice for preparing for the rigorous medical school admissions process. The Office is also responsible for the Educational Pipeline Program and the Medical Education for High School Students independent study course in which first year students teach high school students neuroscience.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Office of Inclusion and Diversity: We are committed to increasing diversity throughout the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine within the faculty and housestaff. In addition we seek valid inclusion of West Philadelphia residents in program initiatives as well as creating a sense of community within the School of Medicine staff. One of our major goals is to assist the University in its journey from excellence to eminence via all corridors that lead to true diversity. The major goal of this office is to implement Penn Medicine's vision and strategic goal to increase diversity in support of the Penn Compact and University's overall vision to move from excellence to eminence. We are committed to increasing diversity within all levels in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine among the faculty, house staff, medical students and staff. A second goal of this office is to promote the valid inclusion of members of the West Philadelphia community in program initiatives aimed at addressing and reducing the numerous health disparities that exist there.

The School of Medicine Center of Excellence for Diversity in Health Education and Research: Under the leadership of Jerry Johnson, MD, Professor of Medicine, and Co-Investigator of this project, the overall goals of this Center are to establish, facilitate, conduct and evaluate programs and projects that will enhance the health of underrepresented minorities, particularly African Americans and Hispanics. The Center's activities and programs focus on training and educating minority physicians for faculty positions in the School of Medicine and for leadership positions in health care policy and administration and enhancing research on minority health issues. The Center operates as an integral part of the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and the Health System, and as such it aims to collaborate extensively with all units of the University that share the Center's mission and goals. To accomplish its mission, the Center's principal goals are to prepare undergraduate students for gaining admission to medical school; training minority medical students and physicians for future leadership positions; recruiting and training minority physicians for faculty positions; developing and evaluating curricula components and materials on minority health; enhancing the quantity and quality of research focusing on the health of minorities; and improving the science and math skills of minority secondary school students.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Cultural Effectiveness Initiative: Under the leadership of Noel Rosales, MD, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia launched the Cultural Effectiveness Initiative in September 2003. The goal of this Initiative is to make CHOP accessible, welcoming and more inviting for all families, whatever their linguistic, cultural, dietary or spiritual needs. The Initiative coordinates and unifies the many on-going division-specific projects and programs working toward a more culturally effective workplace and provides institution-wide training. Senior administration feels that delivering care to patients and families in a culturally effective manner benefits everyone. It increases patient satisfaction, patient safety, patient compliance and may even improve patient health outcomes. It improves staff job performance and can increase job satisfaction, increasing the value of services delivered. Dr. Rosales has agreed to serve on our Advisory Board and will be the liaison with the Department of Pediatrics for the clerkship and pediatric residency programs.

Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP): Under the leadership of Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stephens, the goal of this program is to reduce asthma severity rates by using a family and community based intervention designed to increase knowledge and skills relevant to prevention of asthma. The intervention consists of classes for families in a familiar environment including community centers, churches and schools. To date, over 60 class series have been conducted reaching approximately 1650 participants. CAPP has used "train the trainer" model, with the goal of leaving the community equipped with asthma educators, to train parents and teens to teach the community asthma classes. CAPP also began a Home Visitor Program for patients with asthma and to date, 550 families are enrolled in this program, which is now funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Pew Charitable Trusts. CAPP has also recently been awarded by the CDC "Controlling Asthma in American Cities Project." CAPP is working with twelve Collaborative members in Philadelphia to provide a measurable and sustainable, comprehensive community-driven asthma management program that builds capacity, improves the quality of life, raises the level of awareness and enables families to manage asthma." Thus CAPP offers myriad training opportunities in cultural competence for physicians of all levels, and Dr. Bryant-Stephens welcomes the support of faculty.

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Course -- Addressing Health Disparities in Urban Vulnerable Communities: A new course entitled Addressing Health Disparities in Urban Vulnerable Communities is taught by Loretta Sweet-Jemmott, PhD, RN and Susan Gennaro, PhD, RN. This course is open to all University graduate students, including medical students, and is designed to examine the health disparities that currently exist for underserved minority populations and strategies designed to strengthen intervention research, clinical practice, education and policy using an interdisciplinary perspective. It introduces students to the theoretical approaches and methodological issues related to conducting culturally competent research, clinical practice and education related to health disparities for underserved populations with respect to a variety of scientific paradigms. Differences between cultural sensitivity and congruence within a research and practice context will be explored. Concepts of ethnicity, race, marginalization, caring, and culture serve as the basis for in-depth exploration of cultural dimensions of health care.