The challenges of cross-cultural healthcare--diversity, ethics, and the medical encounter.

Difficulties in the provider-patient relationship arise from many sources, and pose various challenges to the integrity of the medical encounter. When these issues are especially sensitive or important to the patient's health and well-being, a complete breakdown in the therapeutic relationship may result. The goal of the emerging field of cross-cultural healthcare is to improve providers' ability to understand, communicate with, and care for patients from diverse backgrounds. We should weave the concepts of cross-cultural care into the ethics of caring if we truly hope to have a positive impact on the health status of diverse patient populations.