ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the following issues: cultural diversity, working in multicultural healthcare teams, education of nurses to care for patients in a culturally diverse society, and intercultural communication. It uses the United Kingdom nursing profession and healthcare services as the main focus for understanding some of the issues impacting on different cultures. Cultural diversity implies that there are many different cultures in a society which, in the context of health and social care, will have a direct impact on the way in which care is delivered. Poor practice includes using children as interpreters, placing a difficult emotional burden on the person doing the interpreting and creating tensions between close relatives. An interesting study by Kai et al. considered the experiences and perceptions of a group of multidisciplinary health professionals in relation to the delivery of care to patients 'from diverse ethnic communities'.
