Health Care in Diverse Communities
The first- and second-year of the MD Program curriculum at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison includes an elective course titled Health Care in Diverse Communities.
Health Care in Diverse Communities 370-712
This class is designed as an introduction to issues that we, as health care professionals, will face entering practice in increasingly diverse communities. While this class is in no way a complete or thorough look at "cultural competency," "cultural sensitivity" or "cultural humility," we hope that the course will provoke an awareness of the importance of these concepts in clinical practice, and assist in developing skills to help meet the challenges we all will face.
This class brings together students from several of the health science schools, patients, community members and health care workers to discuss the experiences of people from different backgrounds, especially as these different experiences apply to health care interactions.
Topics of the class are listed below, though discussions are not limited to these topics alone. A four-hour field experience will also be required in addition to attendance at 8 of the 12 evening sessions (16 hours). It is organized and run by students and for students.
Class Schedule
Jan. 19: Introduction class and discussion of diversity in Madison
Jan. 26: Providing Health Care to Patients with Mental Illness
Feb. 2: Health in Homeless Populations
Feb. 9: Rural Health Care
Feb. 16: Latino/Immigrant Health Care
Feb 23: Health of Visually Impaired Patients
March 2: Health of Hearing Impaired Patients
March 23: LGBT Health
March 30: Health Care Disparities in the Prisoner/Ex-Offender Population
April 6: Health Care in Hmong Communities
April 13: Native American Health
April 20: Final Session and Reflections
Registration: OASIS 370-712
Location: HSLC 2288
Sessions: 12
Dates: 1/19/11-4/20/11 (class will not meet 3/9/10 or 3/16/10)
Meets: Wednesday Evenings, 5:30-7:30pm
Instructor: Dr. Kirsten Rindfleisch, Department of Family Medicine, is the course director. Classes will be facilitated by different outside lecturers each week as well as one of the student coordinators.
Student Leaders: Melissa Natzke, mknatzke@wisc.edu (med), Albert Carbo, acarbo@wisc.edu (pharm) or Lauren Walsh, lhwalsh@wisc.edu (MPH)