Driven largely by immigration, the USA, like Europe and Canada, is becoming ever more diverse. For example, it is anticipated that the country will have a minority-majority population by the year 2042, largely the result of immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as both Africa and Asia. This underscores the importance of understanding different cultural experiences in the health care realm. These demographic shifts have exaggerated an already present cultural distance between the medical community, which is predominantly upper middle class and White, and the general population. As such, health care organizations are grappling with ways in which to both understand and meet the needs of diverse communities that are not always reflective of their employees and/or providers. Cultural competence has been proposed as a mechanism by which to bridge the cultural distance between patients and health care providers.
Cultural competence is a component of patient-centered care....
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Martinez, L.S., Peréa, F.C. (2012). Cultural Competence. In: Loue, S., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5659-0_186
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