Using Sociodrama to Foster Cultural Humility among Faculty and Students in the Academic Medical Center

Abstract

Cultural humility and cultural safety offer the potential to go beyond what is possible with cultural competence to reduce unconscious bias and discrimination in medicine and to foster diversity and inclusion. Cultural humility moves the focus from one on content and the provider as the repository of knowledge to an emphasis on the process of learning and communication between the provider and the patient, thereby modifying the power dynamic within the provider-patient relationship and creating an openness for patient expression and sharing. By creating a space of cultural safety, the provider engages with the patient from a value-neutral perspective such that the patient is neither blamed nor discounted.  Cultural humility can be fostered in the academic medical center by using sociodramatic techniques to explore scenarios that are relevant to faculty, students, and staff. Successful use of this technique can help to clarify conflicts in intergroup conflicts, foster critical questioning, build an awareness of how individuals may feel alienated and dislocated, help to develop empathy, and provide an opportunity for individuals to explore possible responses to a variety of situations.