96-05
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THE EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY OF CULTURAL
SENSITIVE TRAINING FOR PROVIDERS OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES, ON PROVIDER
ATTITUDES, CLIENT USE OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES AND THEIR HEALTH OUTCOMES
"PART 1 of 111"
B. Majumdar, G. Browne, J. Roberts, M. Malean,
B. Carpio
Objectives
Prejudice, with its inherent stereotyping and discriminating practises,
may contribute to poor health, poor health care and ultimately greater
expense for multicultural societies with national systems of health
insurance. This randomized controlled trial, along with a qualitative
component, tests the effects of cultural sensitive training for
health care providers. There is no such rigorous evidence in the
published literature on the value of culture sensitive training.
Method
Seventy-six health care providers and 47 clients (from two community
agencies and one hospital) were randomly assigned to control or
cultural sensitive training and followed over a two year period.
Providers completed the Majumdar et al. (1992) Cultural Awareness
Questionnaire, and the Rokeach (1960) Dogmatism Scale. Clients completed
the Fillenbaum (1988) OAR-Multidimensional Measure of Functional
Capacity, the Laisen et al. (1981) Client Satisfaction Questionnaire,
the Majumdar (1993) Physical and Mental Health Assessment Questionnaire
and the Browne (1990) Health and Social Utilization Questionnaire.
In qualitative analysis incorporated the development of themes from
journals of nurses who took part in the study.
Results
Culture sensitive training resulted in increased provider open-mindedness
and cultural awareness and improved understanding of multiculturalism.
More specifically, training resulted in the providers, who were
predominantly mainstream, having greater insight and ability to
communicate with minority persons. Clients, representing mostly
European and British origins. Who received care from providers trained
in culture sensitivity, demonstrated 1 years later, a greater level
of social resources and improvement in overall functional capacity.
These findings document the tangible health effects for mainstream
and minority clients which result from cultural sensitive training
for providers. Failure to fund these multicultural initiatives may
result in poorer provider-client communication, poorer client function
and subsequently greater expense  for
societies with systems of National Health Insurance.
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