Cultural & Linguistic Competency & Implicit Bias
California Medical Association (CMA) Standards
Updated California Medical Association (CMA) Standards for Cultural and Linguistic Competency and Implicit Bias: In August, 2021, the CMA issued updated cultural and linguistic competency (CLC) standards and created standards for implicit bias (IB) that reduce health disparities, as well as comply with state law. Continuing medical education (CME) providers are required by state Assembly Bills 1195 and 241, and the standards created by the CMA, to include components that address cultural and linguistic competency and implicit bias in CME activities.
What is Cultural and Linguistic Competency (CLC)?
Cultural competency means a set of integrated attitudes, knowledge, and skills that enables a health care professional or organization to care effectively for patients from diverse cultures, groups, and communities. At a minimum, cultural competency is recommended to include the following:
- Applying linguistic skills to communicate effectively with the target population.
- Utilizing cultural information to establish therapeutic relationships.
- Eliciting and incorporating pertinent cultural data in diagnosis and treatment.
- Understanding and applying cultural and ethnic data to the process of clinical care.
Linguistic competency means the ability of a physician and surgeon to provide patients who do not speak English or who have limited ability to speak English, direct communication in the patient's primary language.
What is Implicit Bias (IB)?
Implicit bias, meaning the attitudes or internalized stereotypes that affect our perceptions, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner, exists, and often contributes to unequal treatment of people based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, and other characteristics.
Implicit bias contributes to health disparities by affecting the behavior of physicians and surgeons, nurses, physician assistants, and other healing arts licensees.
Related Resources
- Adverse Childhood Experiences: Tips to help you support inclusivity and equity (Health Net)
- Patient Care Through Better Cultural Awareness (Health Net)
- Health Equity Modules (American Medical Association)
- Health Equity Training Courses (Diversity Science)
- Achieve Health Equity Through Culturally Competent Care for BIPOC Patients (Health Net)
- Cultural and Linguistic Competency Wheel (Johns-Hopkins)
- Implicit Associations Test (Harvard)
- Case Studies on Gender Bias (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) and Racial Bias (American Journal of Public Health)
- Unconscious Bias Training That Works (Harvard Business Review)
- Initiatives to Reduce Maternal Mortality and Severe Maternal Morbidity in the United States (Annals of Internal Medicine)
- Childhood Immunizations: Cultural approaches to support parents who are vaccine hesitant (Health Net)
