HPA 438Culturally Competent Health Services for Diverse Populations

3 credits · Health Policy and Administration · Penn State

This course examines the broad concept of diversity and its impact on health care, particularly on rendering services to patients from diverse groups and about the challenges health care professionals face serving diverse populations. Diversity includes many factors, such as age, ethnicity, race, religion, physical and mental disability, class, gender and sexual orientation. To eradicate health disparities and improve health outcomes, students will explore effective and culturally appropriate strategies and interventions to deliver health care to diverse health care consumers. Some topics of discussion include health disparities, health determinants and health outcomes, cultural competence theories and models, health promotion, research and ethics, and the challenges of diversity within health care with a focus on specific cultural groups and non-ethnic cultures.