| Disparities in health outcomes exist between patients of color and lower socioeconomic standing and White upper and middle-class patients. There also exists a long history of discrimination toward patients in the former categories and a predominantly White health care workforce. To address these disparities and discrimination, the idea of educating the healthcare workforce in cultural competency was developed (Cross, Bazron, Dennis, & Isaacs, 1989). Cultural competency education was implemented into professional health care training curriculum starting in the late 1990's. The idea of being "competent" in any aspect of health care is not considered instantaneously achievable and instead, is achieved slowly, with study and practice, over time (Axley, 2008). Several qualitative studies examining cultural competency education exist within the literature. These studies generally do not contain any specific information regarding a standardized curriculum or accepted definition of cultural competence. No studies evaluate or examine learning from the student perspective. Narrative inquiry, a qualitative methodology which examines stories of both individual and collective experience, contextualized within social spaces, over time, respects and honors the stories of the participants while providing the researcher with new knowledge and understanding (Clandinin, 2013; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Using narrative inquiry to examine these learning experiences, as told in the students' own voices, may provide new understandings of how White health professions students engage in learning about cultural competency. |
