A Model for Large-Scale, Interprofessional, Compulsory Cross-Cultural Education with an Indigenous Focus

Abstract

Cultural competency training for health professionals is now a recognised strategy to address health disparities between minority and white populations in Western nations. In Australia, urgent action is required to "Close the Gap" between the health outcomes of Indigenous Australians and the dominant European population, and significantly, cultural competency development for health professionals has been identified as an important element to providing culturally safe care. This paper describes a compulsory interprofessional first-year unit in a large health sciences faculty in Australia, which aims to begin students on their journey to becoming culturally competent health professionals. Reporting primarily on qualitative student feedback from the unit's first year of implementation as well as the structure, learning objects, assessment, and approach to coordinating the unit, this paper provides a model for implementing quality wide-scale, interprofessional cultural competence education within a postcolonial context. Critical factors for the unit's implementation and ongoing success are also discussed.