Intercultural sensitivity as a competence for sustainability in health education.

Abstract: Higher education represents a sector with high potential to direct its responsibilities in the
generation of significant impacts in the different areas it addresses, in order to achieve sustainable
social development. The educational field of health seeks to train professionals who focus on
addressing the complexity and uncertainty of health phenomena, with the aim of impacting on the
reduction of inequalities and promoting relevant environmental, economic, social and cultural
development. With regard to this last point, one of the key elements to contribute to this aspect of
sustainability involves taking on a series of challenges in this area, requiring students to develop a
series of professional competencies, being intercultural competence (or intercultural sensitivity,
defined as the ability to successfully interact with users of different cultures or ethnicities), an
important dimension in diverse health contexts. Its development through academic training, will
allow transferring training aspects to clinical practice, with its subsequent impact, so it is of
relevance monitoring. Objective: To describe the cultural sensitivity of students belonging to health
science disciplines of a Chilean institution that implements cultural competence in its academic
curriculum. Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study. The scale of cultural sensitivity will be
applied to students of different Health Science careers, comparing by sex, disciplines and level of
education. Conclusions: It is expected to obtain differences between cultural sensitivity by sex,
discipline and level of education. The implications of training professionals with this competence
and its impact on the future attention and implementation of public health policies will be discussed.