First Appeared Friday, 01 February '08

UCSF to Offer Cultural Competency Training for Health Care Providers

UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health is offering free cultural competency training sessions for health care providers on Tuesday, Feb. 19, and Tuesday, May 13.

San Francisco health care providers who work with African American women and infants are cordially invited to register for either training date. Both sessions will be held at UCSF Laurel Heights, 3333 California St. The first session on Feb. 19 will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The second session on May 13 will run from 5 to 9 p.m.

Cultural competency is an important component of medical provider training. This program will focus on ways to reduce African American infant mortality and improve patient encounters through the discussion of race, racism and culture.

Carol Miller

Presenters include longtime UCSF School of Medicine faculty member Carol Miller, MD, clinical professor of pediatrics. Recognized as an excellent teacher and mentor, Miller is a member of the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators. Her clinical interests include the care of term and near-term newborns and their families and primary care of graduates from the neonatal intensive care unit. Miller’s community health interests include at-risk youth, breastfeeding promotion, child abuse prevention, health promotion, home health care, parenting education, physician education and youth violence prevention.

This training is designed to improve patient encounters and strengthen advocacy. The objectives are to:

• • Discuss infant mortality rates and disparities in San Francisco
• • Understand and delineate ways in which institutional bias in the area of race and culture can negatively impact the patient encounter
• • Identify next steps in developing institutional cultural awareness

Continuing education units will be offered free of charge for nurses, physicians and social workers/counselors.

To register or to get more information, email or call 415/575-5684.

The training is also presented in cooperation with Blue Cross of California State Sponsored Business, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section, San Francisco Health Plan, and the Perinatal Advocacy Council: Leadership, Advocacy and Consultation.

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Carol Miller, MD

UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health