Migration and Health: Enhancing Intercultural Competence and Diversity Sensitivity

Course information

Overview: The course is aimed at health authorities at national, subnational and local levels, as well as health care practitioners, researchers, patients and caregivers. It provides:

• an accessible introduction to the key concepts underpinning intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity;
  
• an overview of the types of action that can be taken to improve health care at organizational, systemic, professional and individual health care provider levels;
• several case studies to examine methods and techniques that can be used to promote migrant participation at different stages of policy and practice; and
• an overview of factors to be considered in any initiative developed to promote intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity in health care.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• explain the need for interculturally competent and diversity-sensitive health care;

• explain the importance of education and training in intercultural competence;

• recognize the importance of trained interpreters and intercultural mediators in health care; and

• identify the practical and ethical issues affecting the migrant patients through community participation.

Course duration: Approximately 2 hours 20 minutes.

Certificates: Participants can gain a Record of Achievement by earning at least 80% on the final assessment. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.

Course contents

• Module 1 - Introduction:

  By the end of this module, participants should be able to: discuss the challenges faced by health services due to migration of culturally diverse populations; explain the need for interculturally competent and diversity-sensitive health care; and define the key terms relating to heterogeneous groups mentioned in the toolkit.

• Module 2 - Intercultural Competence and Diversity Sensitivity:

  By the end of this module, participants should be able to: define the key concepts related to cultural competence; explain why interculturally competent and diversity-sensitive health care is necessary; and describe the four-dimensional model for increasing intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity in the health sector.

• Module 3 - Health Sector Responses:

  By the end of this module, participants should be able to: explain the importance of education and training in intercultural competence; recognize the importance of trained interpreters in health care; and identify the role of intercultural mediators.

• Module 4: Community Participation:

  By the end of this module, participants should be able to: explain the importance of participatory approaches in health care; identify the practical and ethical issues affecting migrant patients through community participation; and identify and explain the tools used in different stages of health care.

• Module 5 - Key Questions for Policy-makers and Practitioners:

  By the end of this module, participants should be able to: identify the key questions that need to be asked at different domains to work towards intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity.

• Final Assessment