Transcultural vs. cross-cultural:
- Ideas, beliefs, and values held by people of all cultures are said to be transcultural. For example, every culture has some concept of illness and wellness and a system for providing health care. Other transcultural issues include healing, caring, family issues, incest, and child abuse.
- Study of an individual cultural group leads to an understanding of the ideas, beliefs, and values of that group. When contrasted and compared with other cultural groups, cross-cultural understanding emerges. Generalizations can then be formed to bridge concepts to a transcultural understanding of similarities.
- While it is not possible to learn every nuance of every culture, it is essential to learn as much as possible about the cultures represented in the community. Patient-centered and community-centered care should take into account issues related to diversity, marginalization and vulnerability due to race, gender and ethnicity.
- Every encounter between a patient and a health care provider is cross-cultural in the sense that the illness experience of the patient differs from the disease process orientation of biomedical practice.