Formalizing Cultural Competency Education in Radiology Training: Celebrating the shades of gray that make our lives colorful

Purpose: Diversity is a complex web of constructs that include but are not limited to, a person’s sex, ethnicity, race, heritage, life experiences, education, sexual orientation, and identity. Enabling the healthcare workforce with tools to enhance and embrace our cultural diversity has a direct impact on patient care and health outcomes. To promote cultural awareness/humility, diversity advocates in Radiology have worked with partners within our university and medical center to develop an educational curriculum that includes both general topics of importance as well as topics specifically related to radiology practice. This curriculum is not specific to trainees alone, however, we have developed a schedule to incorporate this into the resident training curriculum. Our curriculum is structured in a three-tiered model to include a partner, champion, and ambassador-level certification.

Methods/Materials: We were able to leverage a previously established system, set up by the Diversity Council at the Medical Center, and build on it to include information specific to radiology. We have already provided workshops and educational tools for this certification including “Implicit Bias Training” and “Why the Place you Live Determines How You Live.” The available programming is a combination of in-person/ virtual sessions and self-paced learning. Topics of specific interest in radiology include educational workshops such as “Gender and racial bias in the interpretation of radiology images” and “Providing culturally competent care as a technologist”.

Results: Several members of the department have declared their goal of working towards the ambassador tier certification. We hope to have 5-7 ambassadors within our department in the next 4-5 years.

Conclusions: We believe that this structured approach to cultural competency training and education is a major step forward in formalizing cultural humility training and one that can be incorporated into other departments. Together, with a continued emphasis on cultural humility education, we can bridge the gaps in our understanding of the people around us. We are made up of varying shades of gray that define us, but that is exactly what makes our lives colorful.