Teaching beyond the prescription: A survey evaluating a cultural humility course in pharmacy education

To evaluate the impact of a structured cultural humility course on first-year PharmD students' self-reported confidence in cultural knowledge, cross-cultural communication, and culturally responsive patient care, anchored in the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence.

A 2-credit cultural humility course was integrated into the P1 pharmacy curriculum, aligned with ACPE Standards 2025 (Standard 2.1.d). Using a quasi-experimental, non-randomized pretest-posttest design, students completed an anonymous 16-item survey before and after the course rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = not at all confident to 4 = very confident). Active learning strategies included take-home quizzes, a structured Padlet reflection activity, and a culminating group cultural presentation applying the Purnell Model framework. Survey reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α, and paired comparisons evaluated pre-to-post confidence changes.

Twenty-five students completed the pre-course survey; 11 completed the post-course survey. Internal consistency was high (α = 0.93 pre-course; 0.95 post-course). Mean pre-course scores ranged from 2.16 to 3.36; post-course scores ranged from 3.36 to 4.00. All 16 items showed significant improvement (p < 0.0001). The largest gains were in eliciting patients' illness perspectives (+1.21), accurately describing culturally competent care (+1.17), and effectively using interpreters in patient encounters (+1.20).

A structured cultural humility course incorporating the Purnell Model and active learning strategies significantly improved PharmD students' self-reported confidence across cultural knowledge, communication, and patient care domains. These findings support intentional curricular design as an effective approach to preparing future pharmacists to address health disparities in alignment with ACPE Standards 2025.