Biomaterial Database

Developing Cultural Awareness Curricular Competencies for Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organization Staff. 2021

Alexander Hart, and Mariana Toma, and Fadi Issa, and Noelle Neault

Director of Research - BIDMC Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Instructor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MassachusettsUSA.

BACKGROUND Cultural awareness is an important part of organizational success when interacting with multiple cultures. Research has shown a dearth of standardized cultural awareness training programs for non-governmental humanitarian organization staff. OBJECTIVE This study aims to develop an expert-consensus set of cultural awareness competencies as the basis for development of humanitarian staff cultural awareness trainings. METHODS A modified Delphi process was selected. The first round of surveys collected a list of cultural awareness competencies from experts in the fields of non-governmental organization (NGO) operations and cultural awareness education and research. This collated list of competencies was then used as the basis of a survey obtaining ratings by the group on a five-point Likert scale. Competencies which achieved an average rating of 4.0 or higher were considered to be "important" for inclusion in future training programs. RESULTS A total of 67.9% of contacted experts agreed to participate, with 84.2% of those completing all rounds of the survey. This group developed a list of ten competencies, including: Cultural Awareness/Sensitivity and Intercultural Communication; Cultural Intelligence; Unconscious Bias/Diversity Awareness; a Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles; Gender and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Other Sexual Identities (LGBTQ+) Issues and Safety; Analytical and Critical Thinking Skills; Negotiation; Program Mission; Power Dynamics; and Empathy. CONCLUSIONS This study defined a set of ten expert-consensus cultural awareness competencies which can be a basis for future NGO staff training. Future work can both use these competencies to create educational programs and further define and expand the set of competencies based on analyses of their implementation.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009938	Organizations	Groups of people working together in a structured manner to pursue common goals and objectives.	Non-Governmental Organizations,Nongovernmental Organizations,Organizations, Nongovernmental,Non Governmental Organizations,Non-Governmental Organization,Nongovernmental Organization,Organization,Organization, Non-Governmental,Organization, Nongovernmental,Organizations, Non-Governmental
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D002983	Clinical Competence	The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care.	Clinical Skills,Competence, Clinical,Clinical Competency,Clinical Skill,Competency, Clinical,Skill, Clinical,Skills, Clinical,Clinical Competencies,Competencies, Clinical
D003479	Curriculum	A course of study offered by an educational institution.	Curricula,Short-Term Courses,Course, Short-Term,Courses, Short-Term,Short Term Courses,Short-Term Course
D003697	Delphi Technique	An iterative questionnaire designed to measure consensus among individual responses. In the classic Delphi approach, there is no interaction between responder and interviewer.	Delphi Method,Delphi Studies,Delphi Technic,Delphi Methods,Delphi Study,Delphi Technics,Delphi Techniques,Method, Delphi,Methods, Delphi,Studies, Delphi,Study, Delphi,Technic, Delphi,Technics, Delphi,Technique, Delphi,Techniques, Delphi
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D032921	Consensus	General agreement or collective opinion; the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned.	Consensus Development,Development, Consensus