Transcultural Diversity and Health Care: Individual and Organizational

Cultural competence is one of the most important initiatives in health care throughout most of the world. Diversity has increased in many countries due to wars, discrimination, political strife, worldwide socioeconomic conditions, and the creation of the European Union. Due to an increase in the number of migrants across the world over the last two decades populations of many countries are becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse. Working with patients of different cultural backgrounds can be challenging due to differences in opinions, beliefs, thoughts, norms, customs, and traditions. If poorly managed, cultural diversity can result in miscommunication, maladaptive behaviors, and interpersonal conflicts. Thus, it has been widely suggested that native and foreign-born health care professionals need to be equipped with cross-cultural competence.