Cultural competence: development of a conceptual framework.

Abstract

To describe the development of a conceptual framework for cultural competence that could help and guide the training of rehabilitation practitioners, students and researchers. A systematic review of the literature yielded 259 usable documents that were further reviewed by two independent readers to identify 32 publications that described cultural competence conceptual models. After eliminating redundancy, 18 unique cultural competence models were identified. A synthesis model was first developed which included four components. After an empirical validation of the model, a new model with only three components emerged. The empirically validated conceptual framework is a promising tool for training and evaluation of cultural competence.