Assessing Cultural Psychiatry Milestones Through an Objective Structured Clinical Examination

Culturally appropriate tools for patient assessment are needed to train psychiatric residents. An objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) can be a helpful tool for evaluating trainees in the psychiatry milestones pertaining to cultural competency.

Seventeen psychiatry residents and fellows at the University of Massachusetts participated in two small-group OSCE exercises to learn cultural interviewing using the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview. Trainee groups presented a cultural formulation and received feedback. Participants were surveyed about their comfort with cultural interviewing before and after the exercise.

Paired t tests (N = 16) showed that mean level of comfort with the Cultural Formulation Interview increased by a mean of 0.5 points after training (t = 3.16, df = 15, p < 01 95 % CI = 163-837).

The UMass culturally appropriate assessment OSCE enhanced psychiatric trainees' comfort with culturally appropriate interviewing using the Cultural Formulation Interview.