Developing Allies: Preparing Pharmacy Students to Practice With Cultural and Structural Humility

The Curricular Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities learning outcome of Cultural and Structural Humility was updated, prompting programs to evaluate how this content is included. The authors reviewed relevant literature published within the past 10 years (2014-2024) and provided a summary and relevant recommendations, as well as resources.

Calls to action were made within the Academy for programs to develop a holistic programmatic approach to developing students' cultural and structural humility. Current shortcomings identified were that most programs incorporated related competencies into their curriculum at the introduction level; lacked intentional development of related skills and behaviors, instead focusing on knowledge and attitudes; seldomly used validated, reliable, and standardized assessments; and allowed this work to fall on a few designated experts rather than all faculty and preceptors.

Programs should aim for a holistic approach to prepare graduates to practice with cultural and structural humility, which should begin with creating structures to support it, such as appointment of an administrator or a diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Integration of Cultural and Structural Humility content should be intentional and spiraled, with competencies mapped across didactic, experiential, and cocurricular activities at all learning levels to ensure development of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Students should have multiple assessment opportunities, including formative and summative, and programs should use standardized, valid, and reliable assessment tools. Intentional development of all faculty, preceptors, and students is critical for success. Institutions are encouraged to share their initiatives with the Academy.