ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A team of faculty members from Xavier University of Louisiana will be awarded the 2011 AACP Rufus A. Lyman Award honoring the best paper published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education (AJPE). The award will be presented at the 2011 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meeting and Seminars Closing Banquet on Tuesday, July 12 at 7:00 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio.
“Nine Constructs of Cultural Competence for Curriculum Development” was authored by Margarita Echeverri, Ph.D., B. Cecile Brookover, Ph.D., and Kathleen B. Kennedy, Pharm.D., of Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. The paper examines the self-administered Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ), which assesses the perceived level of cultural competence of students in the College of Pharmacy to guide curriculum development within the 4-year academic program.
The authors administrated the CCCQ to each class of student pharmacists during spring 2009. Exploratory factor analysis with principal components and varimax rotation was conducted to build the constructs explaining the factors measuring students' self-assessment of cultural competence. Nine factors, including 46 items extracted from the CCCQ and explaining 79 percent of the total variance, were found as the best fit to measure students' self-assessment of cultural competence. Results demonstrated that the CCCQ was found to be a practical, valid and reliable self-assessment instrument to measure the perceived level of students' knowledge, skills, attitudes and encounters in cross-cultural environments. The questionnaire allowed the identification of students' needs for training in cultural competence and the development of a curriculum tailored to satisfy those needs.
“As we prepare students to be sensitive to the diverse patient population that they will serve, we wanted to apply an instrument to guide the development of our program and to assess the students’ perceived level of cultural competence,” said Kennedy.
Echeverri is an assistant professor in the Division of Clinical and Administrative Sciences (DCAS) and serves as the educational coordinator in health disparities, cultural competence and diversity in the Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education (CMHDRE) at Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. Prior to joining the faculty at Xavier, Echeverri had a joint position as research assistant professor at Xavier and Tulane Universities. During this time she developed research and curricula in health disparities and cultural competence across the pharmacy and medicine programs at both universities.
Brookover is the director for Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment in the Xavier Office of Planning, Institutional Research and Assessment. She previously served as assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Xavier and the University of New Orleans, and as director of the Rosa Keller Campus, an older adult education program. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of New Orleans as well as a Master of Science in developmental psychology; an MBA from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Brookover specializes in adult development and aging and has publications and research presentations in attitudes toward aging from a minority perspective.
Kennedy is dean of Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. She completed the Management Development Program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in 2004 and the AACP Academic Leadership Fellows Program in 2006. In 2004, Kennedy received the Malcolm Ellington Professor of Health Disparities Research Endowed Professorship and was appointed director of the CMHDRE where she served until January of 2009. As director of CMHDRE, Kennedy provided leadership in the development of the research infrastructure necessary to support health disparities research, education and training in the College of Pharmacy. Kennedy’s research has been in the area of behavior modification and cultural competence.
“The Lyman Award is one of the most significant honors in pharmacy education as it is awarded to the authors of the best paper published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education each year,” said Joseph T. DiPiro, Pharm.D., editor of AJPE and executive dean of South Carolina College of Pharmacy. “The Committee selected this paper from 31 that were nominated. Cultural competency is a timely topic. The paper is an important read for all in the Academy. The self-assessments were robust and were strengths of the paper.”
The award is presented annually as a framed certificate along with a stipend of $5,000 to be shared by the authors of the paper.
The 2011 AACP Annual Meeting and Seminars, Expanding Our Horizons, will be held July 9-13 at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas. The conference offers educational programming, exhibits, networking events and award presentations. Registration fees are waived for credentialed journalists. Visit the AACP Web site or contact our media relations representative for more information.
About AACP
Founded in 1900, AACP is a national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education and educators. Comprising 124 accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy including more than 6,190 faculty, 54,700 students enrolled in professional programs and 5,400 individuals pursuing graduate study, AACP is committed to excellence in pharmacy education. Visit www.aacp.org to learn more about AACP and stay connected with the Association on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.