PROFESSIONCultural competency now law in New JerseyOther states may follow in tying cultural competency training to licensure. Some doctors say mandates are the wrong way to go.By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. April 25, 2005. Physicians who want to obtain a medical license or be relicensed in New Jersey must take cultural competency training under a new law intended to help reduce health care disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Legislators and medical leaders say they believe New Jersey is the first state to pass a law requiring physicians to learn how to be culturally attuned to patients to be licensed to practice medicine. But Arizona, California, Illinois and New York are considering similar bills that call for physicians and medical students to take courses to raise cultural awareness and sensitivity toward minority patients, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards. Leaders in both medicine and licensure say that the measures signal a trend that states want to take greater steps to reduce health care disparities and ensure that physicians are more responsive to both cultural and language differences among their patients. "What all of this says is there is an appreciation that the population in our country is changing and evolving, and that means, as health care [practitioners], we have to change also to meet the needs of that population," said Dale Austin, chief operating officer and senior vice president of the Texas-based federation. New Jersey Sen. Wayne R. Bryant said he had proposed legislation for cultural competency training as a first step in eliminating disparities in medical care among minority groups. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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