Background: Health disparities exist across racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, but cross-cultural understanding can improve patient outcomes. As such, the AAMC mandated cultural competence learning standards as a component of medical school accreditation and created the Tool for Assessing Cultural Competency Training (TACCT) for addressing, teaching, and measuring cultural competency. We aimed to assess medical student perceptions of cultural competency training at a large U.S. medical school using the AAMC TACCT instrument. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of current training and identify critical areas for improvement.

Methods: Data was collected from a cross-sectional survey using the TACCT at one sizeable medical school. Using this data, we analyzed the frequency of medical student agreement with the extent to which each TACCT item had been adequately addressed in their curriculum and examined differences by year of training.

Results: After analyzing survey responses from 215 medical students, respondents identified two under-addressed content areas within medical training: Health Disparities (Domain 1) and Community Strategies (Domain 2)—responses varied by year, with the highest training concordance in the MS3 year. Over half (58%) of students perceived a need for additional training for healthcare delivery and outcomes among underrepresented groups, including Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders, Middle Eastern or North Africans, and Individuals with Disabilities.

Discussion: Medical students perceived additional training needs in key TACCT content areas. Future studies should compare faculty and student responses, current curricular redesign, and the effects of social, political, and structural systems that can contribute to health outcomes.