Modeling Cultural Competence in Teaching Humanities to Medical Students

Oksana Isayeva^1,

¹Candidate of philological sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages, Danylo Halytskyi Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine

Cite this paper:
Oksana Isayeva. Modeling Cultural Competence in Teaching Humanities to Medical Students. American Journal of Educational Research. 2014; 2(12B):51-55. doi: 10.12691/education-2-12B-10

Abstract

The article highlights the issue of humanization of higher medical education, based primarily on expanding the informational content of culture competence in training humanities. Humanitarian education as a part of culture should form the capacity for introspection, self-awareness, self-reflection to personal actions and to surrounding events. Culture competence plays especially essential role in further practice of medical specialists. The background of cultural competency at higher medical universities can be understood as those acquired skills which help medical students recognize cultural differences and facilitate communication between patients, their relatives and colleagues who have various ways of understanding health, sickness and body functioning. Culture competence includes cultural knowledge, sensitivity, awareness, clinical skills and abilities which constitute rules, norms and strategies. The teachers of humanitarian disciplines should elaborate and implement into educational process confirmed strategies for empowering medical students to become active, responsible life-long learners and self-motivated, interdependent, self-aware, self-managing, self-confident, emotionally intelligent and culturally competent specialists. Learning humanitarian subjects at higher medical educational establishments can offer an exceptional opportunity to help medical students develop learning skills, especially relating to cultural competence.

Keywords:
culture competence culture medical students higher medical education humanitarian disciplines

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