Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The program

Research demonstrates that cultural competency results in more successful patient education, increases healthcare-seeking behavior, yields fewer diagnostic errors, and ensures greater adherence to medical advice. Culturally responsive healthcare workers provide high-quality, patient-centered care that reduces health disparity and increases health literacy.

• Do you want to give your patients better, customized care?
• Would you like to engage culturally diverse patients in the healthcare decision-making process?
• Interested in learning how to create a non-judgmental, inclusive healthcare environment?

Create an environment where people feel they can ask questions without judgment and seek the advice and tools they need to improve their health. Foster an understanding of your patients to help them become more involved in their own care.

During this 4-hour course, you will learn how to create a culturally inclusive healthcare environment. This is a Zoom-based course during which you will gain tools and resources to engage people from different backgrounds in conversations about their health care.

Our training emphasizes cultural humility and includes a combination of case studies, group discussions, self-assessments, and more to support your patience engagement.

This course is approved by the Oregon Health Authority to meet the cultural competency needs for various Boards in Oregon. Additionally, the following organizations have specifically approved this CE training for their providers:

• Addiction Counselor Certification Board of Oregon (ACCBO)
• Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners
• Oregon Board of Massage Therapists

During this course, you will learn how to:

• Customize patient treatments to meet diverse cultural values and beliefs
• Increase your self-awareness and sensitivity to the cultural implications, impact, and understanding of healthcare encounters
• Assess patients’ health literacy
• Create a non-judgmental, inclusive environment for patients
• Improve your ability to involve patients in cooperative healthcare decision-making processes
• Engage in intercultural communication using a variety of tools and resources

By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of:

• Cultural factors that may influence provider and patient behaviors
• Legal issues and regulations around diversity, including patient risks and responsibilities, ADA, CLAS, and Joint Commission requirements
• Stereotyping vs. archetyping, and how we judge others
• The importance of culture and how to respect differences in order to provide the highest quality of care and avoid misunderstandings
• Inequality and social determinants of health
• Cultural competence as a lifelong, participatory process, not an endpoint
• Resources in Oregon to increase cultural competency and gain more information

This class is beneficial for a variety of healthcare professionals, including:

• Psychologists
• Counselors and therapists
• Chiropractors
• Dentists and dental hygienists
• Nurses
• Dieticians
• Acupuncturists
• Naturopathic doctors
• Massage therapists
• Physical therapists
• Occupational therapists
• Emergency care providers
• Home care workers
• Social workers

The investment

• Format: This is a half-day course and includes a brief reading assignment prior to the class. The course is live-streamed online and recorded.
• CEU eligibility: This course is approved by the Oregon Health Authority and fulfills Ethics CEU requirements for many professionals. Approved by the Addiction Counselor Certification Board of Oregon (ACCBO), National Association of Social Workers Oregon (NASW-OR), Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and Oregon Board of Massage Therapists for 6 CEU hours.
• Cost: $79

The instructor

Michele Wilson

I joined the PCC community in 2007, and teach in the Race, Indigenous Nations, Gender Studies, and Anthropology departments. Before coming to Portland, I spent 16 years at Linn-Benton Community College leading their Anthropology and Women’s Studies programs, and several years teaching Anthropology at Chemeketa Community College. I’ve also provided classroom instruction in the Ethnic Studies and Anthropology Departments at Oregon State University. I received a B.S. in Anthropology from Longwood University in Virginia, and a M.A.I.S. from Oregon State University in Applied Anthropology and Public Health. I have also received several anti-discrimination, human rights, cultural competency, and equity certifications.

My areas of experience are diverse. Formally trained as an archaeologist, I’ve participated in and managed many preservation projects – both research and contract – primarily in Polynesia, and the Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Prairie-Plains regions of the United States. I am deeply invested in Indigenous and Aboriginal, gender-based, and race-based self-determination, liberation, and justice. My research interests and curriculum center the intersections of identity formation and expression, social location, and cultural systems and institutions. Projects are framed by my belief in human rights, and I only adopt and design curricula that strategically center the experiences and voices of people who come from traditionally underserved communities. This framing is fundamentally human-centered and liberatory.

I see learning as an opportunity to empower people – to develop their agency and to be critical thinkers – and I strive to create purpose-driven opportunities for people to align what they have learned with their personal and professional commitments. Education (and access to it) is a human right, and my aim is to co-learn with all of the people with whom I work. I was awarded the Declare Award for Outstanding Faculty Activism in 2011 because of these and other principles that I believe are integral to building just and inclusive communities.

In addition to my instructional duties, I am the Director of the Title III Grant Program and I lead and facilitate critical anti-oppression, cultural humility, and cultural competence workshops and presentations. Until recently, I proudly served on the City of Portland’s Human Rights Commission for 6 years.

Pronouns: she/her