Cultural Competency

Cultural Competency CE Requirement Effective January 1, 2020:

OAR 334-010-0050 Continuing Education: Modify language to bring the board in compliance with statutory requirements on cultural competency.
Requires licensees to take and submit 1 hour of cultural competency per renewal period.

The Oregon Board of Massage Therapists

The OBMT has issued a new license renewal requirement that licensees will have to take at least one hour of cultural competency training every renewal as part of the required 25 hours of continuing education.

The Cultural Competency Continuing Education model, that was approved by the Oregon Health Authority, will be accepted for meeting the cultural competency requirement. Following is general information about the Health Authority’s model and links to various resources for these trainings.

The Oregon Health Authority

According to the Oregon Health Authority, the cultural competency education course must teach attitudes, knowledge and skills that enable a health care professional to care effectively for patients from diverse cultures, groups and communities.

There are four Domains (fields) in the OHA’s Cultural Competence criteria:

Domain 1 – Self-awareness and self-assessment of providers’ beliefs, attitudes, emotions and values.

Trainings in this Domain will include:

* cultural factors that may influence provider and patient’s behaviors
* teaching a non-judgmental and respectful environment during health encounters between provider and patient
* teaching about the relationship between cultural competence and ethics
* concepts of power, privilege and oppression across personal identities

Domain II – The acquisition of knowledge by providers.

Trainings in Domain II will include:
* an understanding of cultural competence as a developmental, life long, participatory process
* a broad and inclusive definition of diversity, even if it focuses on a specific population
* knowledge of legal, regulatory (i.e. patient rights & responsibilities, risks to practice-civil rights act, ADA, CLAS, Joint Commission requirements, etc.) and accreditation issues of diversity and linguistic issues and providers’ professional standards regarding cultural competence
* knowledge of health disparities and social determinants of health
* knowledge of culturally based information and related resources specific to Oregon

Domain III – The acquisition of skills by providers

Trainings in Domain III may include:
* how to collaborate with patients and/or stakeholders in making health care decisions.
* how to develop and/or utilize communication tools/multiple patient education formats (including translated, audio and visual materials) and patient assessment strategies (e.g. patient- and family-centered communication, patient’s perception of his/her health, patient preferences, etc.) recognition of institutional cultural issues)
* how to collaborate effectively with community resources, stakeholders, traditional health workers

(THWs), qualified/certified health care interpreters (HCIs), providers, and other types of healers

Domain IV – Specific educational approaches for the acquisition of knowledge and skills

Trainings in this Domain will include:
* facilitated learning processes (e.g. interactive training involving case review; homework; discussion group/blog; interactive test with trainer/facilitator; post-training to demonstrate what was learned; etc.)
* a variety of collaborative, inclusive and accessible teaching methodologies consistent with adult learning principles (self-directed, goal-oriented activities based on participant experiences in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values)
* an assessment of the impact on participants and efficacy of trainers, with clear description of criteria for participant completion
* the principles of privilege, power, oppression, bias, and the guiding principles of cultural competency

The OBMT provides a list of OHA approved Trainings on their website here:

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/OEI/Documents/CCCE%20Registry_010419.pdf

Article by Rosa Leonardi.