Operating on A Bias: A Review of Cultural Competency Curricula in Surgical Residencies and a Call for Systemic Change

Background: Several factors contribute to surgical outcome disparities, including structural racism and implicit bias. Research into how surgical residency programs intervene on Cultural Complications via education remains sparse. We review the literature for how surgical residency programs use education to combat staff and patient exposure to Cultural Complications.

Methods: We searched PubMed, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar for curricula aimed at improving cultural competency in surgical residencies. OBGYN curricula were included. Non-US studies were excluded.

Results: Studies were organized by intervention type: Didactic, Grand Rounds, and M&M. The most common interventions were Didactics, with Grand Rounds being the least common. Target measures improved anywhere from 20-88%.

Conclusions: The common types of cultural competency curricula are clear, and certain interventions show improvement in trainees' education. Scarcity of data on these curricula does not necessarily indicate their lack of existence but does suggest additional research is needed into curricular interventions and how they may address cultural complications.