• Joy Agner.
• Joy Agner, MS, MA, OTR/L, is PhD Candidate, Department of Community and Cultural Psychology, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu; joyagner@hawaii.edu.
• Am J Occup Ther. 2020 Jul 1; 74 (4): 7404347010p1-7404347010p7.

OtherAs the U.S. population becomes increasingly multicultural, occupational therapy practitioners must be adept at working with diverse populations. For the past 15-20 yr, many occupational therapy scholars have recognized this need, and in response, they have promoted cultural competence training. Although cultural competence has provided an important initial conceptual framework for the field, I argue that it is time to move toward a practice of cultural humility, which is defined by flexibility; awareness of bias; a lifelong, learning-oriented approach to working with diversity; and a recognition of the role of power in health care interactions. In this article, I present three main arguments why cultural humility is a more useful and critical conceptual framework than cultural competence, and I review preliminary research that examines the influence of cultural humility on patient experience. I conclude by briefly describing how cultural humility can be incorporated in occupational therapy curricula and applied in clinical and community practice settings.What This Article AddsThis article provides a clear articulation of what cultural humility is, how it differs from cultural competence, and how it can be applied in occupational therapy.Copyright © 2020 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

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