School of Medicine

Our study uses two survey instruments to measure the explicit and implicit attitudes of medical and pharmacy students regarding issues of culture and race. The surveys are designed to assess which aspects of cultural competency are the most challenging for health professional students, as well as to measure their subconscious attitudes towards people of different races. The data from this project is valuable in two ways. It replicates the work of White-Means et al. (2009) in a different region of the U.S., thereby advancing our understanding of how the diverse social context of Southern California impacts cultural competency and provider attitudes as compared to other regions of the country. Additionally, it provides a baseline assessment to aid in the implementation and evaluation of cultural competency curriculum that is tailored to our population of students. Our research shows a high prevalence of implicit racial bias among health professional students. This project is relevant to every provider of health care because it addresses some of the unconscious cognitive processes that all providers bring to their interactions with patients.