Abstract

Nowadays multicultural reality leads health professionals to interact in their daily work with individuals and families from diverse cultures. The interaction between a person or family and a health professional from a different culture is called "cultural encounter". These encounters involve difficulties, complications and barriers, which health professionals will have to face in order to provide good care and promote healthy lifestyles. This narrative review shows that the difficulties are related to cultural and linguistic factors, health literacy, disadvantages in socio-economic status and the prejudices and stereotypes of healthcare professionals. Different strategies are described in the literature that could help health professionals to overcome these difficulties, namely: the development of culturally appropriate programmes; appropriate pedagogy and resources, and the use of culturally and linguistically sensitive materials; the use of interpreters and the organization of courses to learn the most widely spoken language. In addition to these strategies, the need is underscored for a change of approach in which the objective should be training health professionals to achieve "cultural competence". Training in cultural competence would encourage professionals to offer tailored care plans, taking into account the cultural values, beliefs and practices of any person or family, and would help them to avoid stereotypes and prejudices.