Healthcare Inequality, Cross-Cultural Training, and Bioethics: Principles and Applications

To promote so-called cultural competence in work of direct-care providers and other health professionals among diverse peoples, cross-cultural training (CCT) is now widely advised. However, in ethically assessing aims and content of CCT, and surrounding issues and concerns, what should guide us? And if we can elaborate satisfactory moral touchstones, what do they imply for healthcare professionals, overarching structures, and bioethicists? Building on prior work, this paper tries to help answer these questions.Work in this paper is indebted to discussions with Annette Dula, Insoo Hyun, Muhjah Shakir, Melanie Tervalon, and colleagues at Tuskegee University and the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare. Erika Blacksher, Leonard Ortmann, and Madison Powers provided useful comments about earlier drafts. This work was supported by CDC Cooperative Agreement Number P76/CCP424229-2.