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Cultural Competencies in Health Care: Home

This guide provides information about materials which deal with transcultural communication in medicine.

Table of Contents

How to use this Guide

This guide assists students who are working on cultural projects in the health sciences specialties.  Materials for use in clinical practice are also included.  Keep in mind when searching a database or the catalog, if you haven't found what you're looking for in 30 minutes, it's time to Chat with a Librarian!

Tips for Finding Information About Cultures

When searching for information about cultures, you can expect to use a variety of resources.  Books, reference materials like encyclopedias or subject dictionaries, websites, and electronic materials like online journals and databases may all contain information you need.  Your search strategy will vary depending on which type of resource you're using. 

When linking cultures to certain health-related issues, you may not always be able to find health information on the specific culture or topic of interest.  In these instances it may be necessary to take information from separate sources and make your own inferences.

Try a simple search for the specific culture you're researching.  Type in the name of the culture along with the term "culture".  For example, search "Korean Culture" or "Korea AND Culture".

For cultural searches and health, you can identify search terms related to your health question in a certain region or country by adding this concept on to the culture topic. For example, search "Saudi Arabia" AND Culture AND ("Dietary Restrictions" OR diet).

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