Teaching cultural dexterity in surgical care: As essential to a surgeon's skill set as tying a knot

• Published in: The American journal of surgery Vol. 237; p. 115705
• Main Authors: Ortega, Gezzer, Dacier, Brittany M., Zárate Rodriguez, Jorge, Chun, Maria B.J., Udyavar, N. Rhea, Allar, Benjamin G., Green, Alexander R., Haider, Adil H., Smink, Douglas S., Atkinson, Rachel B., Barreiro-Rosado, Jeenn, Britt, L.D., Brittain, Molly A., Caldwell, Katharine, Chen, Annie, Demko, Caroline, Harrington, David T., Kent, Tara S., Olufajo, Olubode A., Lipsett, Pamela A., Lynch, Kenneth A., Mullen, John T., Petrusa, Emil, Reidy, Emma, Sheu, Christina, Swoboda, Sandra M., Wilson, Lori L., Wise, Paul E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.11.2024; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Attitudes; Culture; Curricula; Data collection; Diversity equity & inclusion; Editing; Emotional intelligence; Empathy; Ethnic factors; Funding; Health care; Inclusion; Medical education; Minority & ethnic groups; Patients; Skills; Supervision; Surgeons; Surgery; United States > US; Cross-cultural communication; Interpersonal skills; Cultural dexterity; Surgical education
• ISSN: 0002-9610; 1879-1883; 1879-1883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.03.001

The United States is becoming increasingly diverse, though the surgical workforce has been slow to follow; in 2021, only 6% of general surgeons identified as Black or African American and 7% identified as Hispanic.1 For patients of racial or ethnic minorities, most of their healthcare interactions will be cross-cultural, and provider-level factors such as poor patient-clinical communication leads to lower quality of care and inferior outcomes.2,3 While it is imperative that we actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in surgery, we also need to act now by training our surgical workforce to care for patients of diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Teaching surgical trainees to use cultural dexterity to understand individual patients’ attitudes, behaviors, nonverbal cues, and expressions is a worthy endeavor to provide equitable health care to all patients. The PACTS Trial Group was involved in the conceptualization, study design, and data collection of the PACTS Trial.