Abstract

Structural competency proposals have been developed as part of an effort to infuse clinical training with a structural focus. Framed in the context of medical education, the discussion on structural competency naturally emphasises the development of such competency in healthcare workers. In this article, we shift the focus to reflect on how the work of migrant community leaders may involve the development of structural competencies and what can be learned from this complementary perspective. We analysed the development of structural competency in an immigrant rights organisation in northern Chile. We conducted focus groups with migrant leaders and volunteers and used the tools proposed by the Structural Competency Working Group to facilitate dialogue. This allowed us to verify the development of structural competency and other collective competencies, including the capacity to create a protected space for circulating experiences and knowledge; coordinate a heterogeneous group of agents; have a socio-legal impact; and maintain autonomy concerning ideological production. This article introduces the concept of and reflects on the importance of expanding beyond the common medical-centred approach when considering structural competency.

MeSH

Work, Public Health

Cited by

• Learning Language, Un/Learning Empathy in Medical School. Cult Med Psychiatry, 2025
• Migrant Farmworkers' Acceptability of Health Services in Spain: Barriers and Facilitators Identified by Professionals. Health Expect, 2025
• Economic and mobility repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chile-Bolivia border. Politics (Oxf), 2023
• Sustaining Hope Within Entangled Accompaniments: Toward an Otherwise Clinical Ethnography and Critical Social Medicine. Cult Med Psychiatry, 2025