School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
BMC Med Educ. 2011 Jun 16;11:34. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-11-34.
Cultural competence, the ability to work in cross-cultural situations, has been acknowledged as a core skill for physiotherapists and other health professionals. Literature in this area has focused on the rationale for physiotherapists to provide culturally-competent care and the effectiveness of various educational strategies to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge about cultural competence by physiotherapists and physiotherapy students. However, there is a paucity of research on how students with different cultural needs, who are attending one university class, can be accommodated within a framework of learning core physiotherapy skills to achieve professional standards.
This paper reports on steps which were taken to resolve the specific needs of a culturally-diverse body of first year physiotherapy students, and the impact this had on teaching in a new physiotherapy program located in Greater Western Sydney, Australia. Physiotherapy legislative, accreditation and registration requirements were considered in addition to anti-discrimination legislation and the four ethical principles of decision making.
Reflection on this issue and the steps taken to resolve it has resulted in the development of a generic framework which focuses on providing quality and equitable physiotherapy education opportunities to all students. This framework is generalizable to other health professions worldwide.
文化能力，即在跨文化情境中工作的能力，已被公认为物理治疗师和其他健康专业人员的核心技能。该领域的文献主要集中在物理治疗师提供文化能力的理由上，以及各种教育策略的有效性，以促进物理治疗师和物理治疗学生对文化能力知识的掌握。然而，关于如何在学习核心物理治疗技能以达到专业标准的框架内，满足具有不同文化需求的学生的需求，研究甚少。
本文报告了为满足第一年轻度多样化的物理治疗学生的具体需求而采取的步骤，以及这对位于澳大利亚大西部悉尼的新物理治疗计划教学的影响。除了反歧视立法和决策的四项伦理原则外，还考虑了物理治疗立法、认证和注册要求。
对这一问题的反思以及为解决这一问题而采取的步骤，导致制定了一个通用框架，该框架侧重于为所有学生提供优质和公平的物理治疗教育机会。该框架适用于全球其他卫生专业。
