Communities as teachers: learning to deliver culturally effective care in pediatrics

A patient's culture has an effect on her or his view of illness, decision to seek care, and adherence to treatment plans and follow-up visits. In this article, we describe community-academic partnerships designed to teach improved delivery of culturally effective care conducted in pediatric residency training programs in New York, New York, and San Diego, California. Columbia University-Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian focuses most of residents' cultural-training experiences within 1 community program, a home-visitation program (Best Beginnings) with which residents work in various capacities throughout residency. The University of California, San Diego and Naval Medical Center San Diego use a series of cultural "immersion experiences" as a primary method. The creation of community-academic partnerships for the purpose of service and training can be a critical asset in the development of culturally effective care training: community partners become teachers and local communities serve as classrooms.