title: Culturally competent care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define key concepts and summarize available guidelines that are important resources to assist nurses to provide culturally competent care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medline, anthropologic and epidemiologic literature, and National Institutes of Health documents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Controversy remains about the most appropriate language to use to describe features of diverse populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Becoming culturally competent begins by understanding terms and concepts that are essential in developing cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Sensitivity to language and the history of the development of some labels are important.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center School of Nursing, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: M Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Palos
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006801:Humans; D009859:Oncology Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D009626:Terminology as Topic