Cultural Competency Training
The law
Please read the bill
Summary:
The New Jersey Legislature recently passed a bill that requires New Jersey’s medical schools to provide instruction in “cultural competency” to “address the problem of race and gender-based disparities in medical treatment.” [Senate substitute for S 144 and A 492 (adopted March 29, 2005)]. Completion of this training will be a condition of receiving a diploma from medical school. Physicians already licensed to practice in New Jersey will be required to demonstrate that they have received appropriate training or complete the as yet unidentified instruction within three years as a condition of being re-licensed.
The New Jersey Legislature embraced “a growing body of medical literature which documents race and gender-based disparities in the provision of health care” to find that “cultural awareness and cultural competence are essential skills for providing quality health care to a diverse patient population.”
While the law was signed by Acting Governor Codey and became effective immediately, its impact cannot be immediate because the Board of Medical Examiners (BME) must adopt regulations to implement the training requirement. In addition to training medical students, New Jersey medical schools will be required to offer the cultural competency training for continuing education credit. Physicians would be able to meet the cultural competency training requirement by completing the course offered there or gain a waiver from BME after completing a similar course that “meets criteria established by regulations of BME.”
There have been rumors about the amount and type of training that will be required, most of which are unfounded. Since the BME must adopt regulations in consultation with the Commission on Higher Education MSNJ believes that the specific criteria (in terms of time, content, and scope) are subject to negotiation through rule-making. MSNJ will work with members and BME to formulate meaningful criteria and training that will effectuate the laudable purpose of the act: providing quality health care to a diverse patient population. MSNJ will work with BME during rulemaking to help establish both the criteria and the coursework that BME will find acceptable for re-licensure requirements. For more information, read a message from MSNJ President S. Manzoor Abidi: Cultural Competency Bill Clarified.
The American Medical Association in its amednews.com headlines that "research documents disparities, but solutions remain elusive...[s]tudies show differences in outcomes between black and white heart patients, but the process of deciding what doctors should do about it is just beginning.... Read in full.