Ethnocentrism: a barrier to effective health care

Abstract

The effective delivery of health care to growing ethnic populations within the United States is a challenge for nurse practitioners. A breakdown in cross-cultural communication and understanding, which stems from the tendency of health care professionals to project their own culturally specific values and behaviors onto the foreign-born patient, has contributed significantly to non-compliance in this patient population. In order to remedy this situation, it is important for nurse practitioners to separate the values of their own cultural background from the cultural background and values of the patients for whom they provide care.