Cultural Awareness In Health Care
There is a growing community of immigrants and refugees in Colorado from countries in Africa, so there is growing need for basic awareness among health care professionals about the backgrounds of these patients and families.The continent of Africa speaks hundreds of languages and if dialects spoken by various ethnic groups are also included, the number is much higher. Not all of these languages and dialects have the same importance: some are spoken by only a few hundred persons while others are spoken by millions. In some African cultures certain meanings to words change. This can heavily affect communication between healthcare professionals and others that come from Africa. Not only do healthcare professionals need to be sensitive to language