Culture in Clinical Care Strategies for Competence

Encouraging readers to understand themselves as well as others, the third edition of Culture in Clinical Care provides a holistic, ethnographically informed introduction to the role of culture within health care settings. The book begins by discussing what culture means and how it is acquired, as well as distinguishing the cultural from the social. It then examines how cultural values, beliefs, and practices affect both clients and providers in an array of health care contexts, including hospital-based, community-based, emergency, and preventive settings. Moving beyond typical fact-centered and attitude-centered approaches to understanding culture, the book emphasizes the complexities of cultural identity, exploring how cultural interactions across individuals, groups, and organizations develop and change over time. International case studies and other interactive exercises are featured throughout, enabling readers to build a robust cultural competence as well as informing instructional strategies. Aimed at students and health care professionals across a range of disciplines, including medicine, allied health, and public health, this is an essential book to foster both mutual understanding and self-knowledge to help improve patient care and communication. Included with the text are updated online supplemental materials for faculty use, available at: www.routledge.com/9781041147268.