2012 Annual Conference

Okere, Suzanna

Texas Woman's University, Houston, Texas

The purpose of this study was to document the effect of a cultural competence education module on student physical therapists’ cultural competence as measured by the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals–Student Version (IAPCC-SV©).

Improving the cultural competence of health care providers has been identified as a strategy to decrease the health disparities that exist among racial and ethnic minorities.  According to the Blueprint for Teaching Cultural Competence in Physical Therapy Education, the Task force to Develop a Cultural Competence Curriculum and the Committee on Cultural Competence adopted the Campinha-Bacote model of cultural competence as a key component of the framework for cultural competence curricula.  Campinha-Bacote has developed the IAPCC-SV©, which is based upon her cultural competence model, to measure student health care professionals’ cultural competence.  However, no double blind randomized controlled trials have evaluated an education module’s effect on student physical therapists’ cultural competence as measured by the IAPCC-SV©.  Measuring student physical therapists’ cultural competence prior to and following participation in a cultural competence education module will document if the cultural competence education module improves their cultural competence.

Thirty-five student physical therapists in the first semester of their physical therapist education participated in this study.  The mean age (+/- SD) of the participants was 24.9 (+/- 3.4). There were 17 males, 18 females and there were 14 (40%) minority participants. 

The IAPCC-SV© measures the five constructs of the Campinha-Bacote model including cultural desire, awareness, knowledge, skill, and encounter.  It is comprised of 20 questions, utilizing a 4 point Likert scale.  The instrument takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete, and scores range from 20-80, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of cultural competence. The IAPCC-SV© has demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha = .75) and good test-re-test reliability (ICC (2,1) = .87) when used with student physical therapists. 

 The Texas State University-San Marcos and Texas Woman’s University Institutional Review Boards approved this study and all participants gave informed consent prior to participation.  Participants completed the IAPCC-SV© Time 1 (pre-test), and then were randomly assigned to participate in a professional abilities module (control group) or a cultural competence module (experimental group).  Students were blinded to their group assignment.  Upon completion of the modules, participants completed the IAPCC-SV© Time 2 (post-test), with the principal investigator blinded to the students’ group assignment.  

An independent samples analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare post-test IAPCC-SV© scores of the control and experimental groups, using the IAPCC-SV© pre-test score as the covariate.

The IAPCC-SV© adjusted means post-test scores of the experimental group (cultural competence module) were significantly higher than the control group (professional abilities module) (experimental: 67.32 +/- 4.16, control: 60.03 +/- 4.16, F_(1,32)= 26.56, (p<.001)).

This study provides preliminary evidence that a cultural competence education module can assist with improving student physical therapists’ cultural competence as measured by the IAPCC-SV©.

Funding source: This research was funded by the Texas Physical Therapy Foundation.