Culturally competent in medical education – european medical teachers’ self-reported preparedness and training needs to teach cultural competence topics and to teach a diverse class

Background: Health inequalities related to culture and ethnicity may be reduced by training future health care providers. Medical teachers therefore also need to be culturally competent. The aim of this study was to assess medical teachers’ preparedness and their training needs to teach cultural competence topics and to teach a diverse class. Methods:A link to an online survey was sent to medical teachers of eleven European institutions. Results were analysed through descriptive analysis and answers to open-ended questions were analysed using qualitative analysis. Results:968 respondents were included. The majority of respondents felt it was important that cultural competence topics should be incorporated into the medical curriculum. Assessment of skills in cultural competence was found important as well.