CULTURAL COMPETENCY FOR MASSAGE THERAPISTS - 1 HR.

Course overview

The need for cultural competency training as an ethical precept has been articulated at many levels: through federal and state legislatures, public health administrations, the medical profession, and other professional health education organizations. The American Massage Therapy Association’s (AMTA) Code of Conduct - last revised in 2010 - helps massage therapists to interpret the Code of Ethics. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) - the accreditation entity for U.S. and Canadian medical schools - revised the standards in 2016 for the upcoming 2017-2018 academic year. This course includes LCME guidelines for building cultural competence amount health practitioners. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: •Define the terms cultural competence, race, ethnicity and culture as they apply to health and wellness professions. •Describe five ways that race and culture impact health. •Identify patterns of health disparities and strategies to address them. •Discuss the importance of diversity factors that influence effective cross-cultural communication in clinical encounters. •List assessment tools to help therapists identify personal attitudes toward culture and cultural differences, and improve communication between clients, patients and massage therapists. •Give three examples of stereotyping and its effect on health. •List strategies to uncover and eliminate stereotyping. •Describe three models of effective communication for providing culturally competent care. •Explain the impact of limited English language (LEP) proficiency on health outcomes. •Identify legislative actions to promote equity in language access for LEP patients. •Select and discuss four reasons for the under-utilization of interpreters for LEP patients in health care settings. •Describe four practical strategies to improve interpretation services to support culturally competent care. •List and explain four components of self-evaluation and reflection to enhance culturally competent care.