N.J. Mandates Cultural-Competency Training

Edited by Sue Pelletier

Medical Meetings, Jun 1, 2005

IN LATE MARCH, New Jersey's Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed legislation requiring that physicians take "cultural-competency training" in order to obtain a license or be relicensed by the State Board of Medical Examiners. The intent of the training, which will be mandatory for medical students and resident and practicing physicians, is to provide docs with a better understanding of the different health-related cultural beliefs and expectations patients bring with them to a doctor's practice, and how different diseases affect diverse populations. The legislation does not address how this training will be funded.

It is up to the State Board of Medical Examiners to implement the law, including the amount of training that will be required and what that training will consist of. Legislators in Arizona, Illinois, and New York are considering similar bills that would require cultural-competency training for medical students, residents, and physicians. California's Cultural and Linguistic Competency of Physicians Act of 2003, which set up a voluntary linguistic and cultural-competency program for physicians, may be bolstered if proposed legislation to make this type of training mandatory is passed. But one thing is certain: CME providers who develop cultural-competency education are going to face some pushback from physicians.

"It seems so misguided," says Pennie Marchetti, a family physician who authors the MedPundit.blogspot.com weblog. "Perhaps its worst sin is that it assumes that all people of certain ethnic backgrounds behave and think so much alike that it's possible (or necessary) to make their behavior a subject for education."