718 - Teaching Communication Skills and Cultural Humility to Fourth Year Medical Students rotating in Pediatrics

Publication Number: 2701.718

Crystal R. Shah, Nemours Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Kanika Gupta, Nemours Children's Hospital, Wilmington, DE, United States; Adil Solaiman, Nemours Children's Hospital, Wilmington, DE, United States

Background: Despite the increasing cultural diversity of patient populations, many medical school curricula lack lecture based and simulation training in communication strategies and cultural humility (Deliz et al., 2019.) This educational gap could impact students’ ability to provide equitable, patient-centered care and highlights the need for curricular innovation in this area.

Objective: The objectives include evaluating the impact of an educational intervention incorporating communication training and cultural humility simulation on fourth year medical students’ self-efficacy in engaging with patients and families from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Design/Methods: This study employs a survey-based design to evaluate the impact of an educational simulation curriculum for fourth year medical students. The curriculum includes a didactic session introducing cultural humility concepts, followed by practical application with two simulation cases. Each case is followed by a debrief using the 5 R’s of cultural humility (Robinson et al., 2021.)
We utilized the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy, a validated tool to measure empathy toward individuals from differing racial and ethnic backgrounds (Wang et al., 2003.) Demographic questions were collected to assess participants’ baseline exposure to cultural humility.
Sessions are conducted monthly. The Scale of ECE was administered pre- and post-intervention to evaluate students’ self-efficacy and knowledge. A control group, who did not participate in the curriculum, completed the same pre-survey and end-of-rotation survey.

Results: 23 fourth year medical students have participated in the curriculum. Many reported improvements following the intervention. Specifically, 83% (n=23) felt more comfortable disclosing medical errors utilizing cultural humility skills, 78% (n=23) felt more comfortable discussing difficult diagnoses with cultural sensitivity and 65% (n=23) reported increased confidence in delivering difficult news.
2 fourth year medical students have participated in the control group. Both students had high pre-rotation self-report in discussing difficult diagnoses and delivering difficult news. 50% (n=2) felt more comfortable disclosing medical errors utilizing cultural humility skills post-rotation.

Conclusion(s): Preliminary data suggests that curriculums combining cultural humility education with simulation-based training can enhance medical students’ confidence and comfort in navigating difficult conversations through a culturally sensitive framework. While most students reported increased skill and awareness, ongoing longitudinal curriculums are needed.