Using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) With First-Year, Pre-Med Students

Robin Selzer, Rohan Srivastava, Alexis Huckleberry

OAI: oai:igi-global.com:246626 • DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1468-9.ch009

Medical education emphasizes cross-cultural training programs to meet the needs of diverse patients and understand social determinants of health as root causes leading to healthcare disparities. The question remains about how to best accomplish this in the curriculum. Students in pursuit of medical education need intercultural training early to examine implicit biases, treat the patient not just the disease, and become patient advocates before they practice. This chapter addresses critical issues related to the human side of healthcare. The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) and accompanying reflection prompts were administered to 40 pre-med students. Findings revealed students overestimated their intercultural understanding and 97.5% had monocultural mindsets. Six themes demonstrated how the IDI® can be used to develop critically reflective future healthcare providers: Reframing Reactions, Lack of Exposure to Other Cultures, Lack of Cultural Self-Awareness, Bi-cultural Identity and Fitting In, Healthcare Connections, and Diversity and University Opportunities.

Medical Education Medical, Healthcare, and Life Sciences Medical Education Education