Enhancing Capacity in MCH Training Programs

The NCCC conducted interviews with DRTE grantees to discover interests and needs related to cultural and linguistic competence. Grantees expressed a critical need for instructional materials, curricula, model programs, and multimedia products to augment current training methodologies.

In response, the NCCC developed a curricula enhancement module series to increase the capacity of DRTE-funded programs to incorporate principles and practices of cultural and linguistic competence into all aspects of their leadership training.

This series includes preservice, inservice, continuing education, and other training activities. In consultation with the DRTE, the NCCC assembled an interdisciplinary work group to identify and reach consensus on core content areas for the module series. The work group membership represented academicians, selected DRTE grantees, health providers, leaders in health care policy and practice, and experts in cultural and linguistic competence.

The module series centers on four core content areas selected by the work group and deemed vital to culturally and linguistically competent health care policy and practice:

• Cultural Awareness
• Cultural Self-Assessment
• The Process of Inquiry -- Communicating in a Multicultural Environment
• Public Health in a Multicultural Environment

This curricula enhancement module series is designed to:

• Assist faculty in incorporating five key content areas into existing curricula that are important to cultural and linguistic competence in public health
• Provide a set of defined areas of knowledge, skills, and awareness related to each core content area
• Offer relevant materials, articles, publications, and other multimedia resources for each core content area
• Provide faculty with instructional and self-discovery strategies