Improving cultural humility in physical therapy students: What is faculty's role?

Background: Clinician bias contributes to health disparities; therefore, educational standards and professional expectations incorporate cultural humility. Vague standards and numerous pedagogical methods make implementing an effective and uniform curriculum challenging. Classroom and clinical faculty's attitudes and behaviors are pivotal; however, evidence on roles beyond instruction is lacking.

Purpose: This study explored physical therapy (PT) students' perceptions of faculty's role in improving their cultural humility.

Methods: This study was rooted in a phenomenological approach that incorporated elements of both descriptive and interpretive phenomenology. Thirteen first-year PT students participated in one-on-one interviews which underwent reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: Reflexive thematic analysis generated two hundred-ninety codes, six categories, and one overarching theme. Dissonance emerged between students' perceptions of faculty's role and the explicit and implicit curriculum.

Conclusion: Explicit messaging from classroom instruction and implicit messaging from clinical encounters and unspoken attitudes, values, and behaviors were disparate. Faculty role modeling, diversity, cultural awareness, and perceived comfort interacting with a diverse patient population improved students' self-confidence and cultural humility. Professional development including field experience with a cognitive apprenticeship approach, and standardized, discipline-specific cultural humility competencies may provide uniform and clear guidelines.