Researchers Develop, Evaluate Forms To Assess Cultural Appropriateness of Care Minorities Receive
"Assessments for Measuring Patient-Centered Cultural Sensitivity in Community-Based Primary Care Clinics," Journal of the National Medical Association: Researchers developed and evaluated three forms to assess the cultural sensitivity of services that community-based primary care centers provided to Hispanics, blacks and whites. The research involved two phases. In the first, Carolyn Tucker of the University of Florida's Department of Psychology and colleagues asked 221 mostly low-income whites, Hispanics and blacks who received care at seven Florida health centers to rank the importance of characteristics at the centers, such as clinic staff behavior and attitude, polices and physical environment characteristics. In the second phase, the researchers used the information from the first phase to develop three assessment forms -- one for each race studied -- and 180 participants filled out the forms. According to the findings, there is "strong support" for testing the forms among a larger national sample of patients (Tucker et al., JNMA, June 2007).
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