Cultural Competence in Health Care

A manual written for health care professionals who care for patients from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. First developed by doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital in Boston, it contains detailed, practical information for working with dozens of religious and cultural groups and is designed to help providers best meet needs of their ethnically diverse patients while satisfying stringent new regulatory standards for culturally sensitive care.

ANNE RUNDLE, R.N., has served as manager of specialty programs at South End Community Health Center in Boston, Massachusetts and Coordinator of the Center for Families at Children's Hospital in Boston. She has founded a consulting firm that specializes in improving hospitals' skills at patient communica-tions, called Health Care Competence (healthcarecompetence.com). She also is an instructor in the graduate school for health studies at Simmons College in Boston.

MARIA CARVALHO, LICSW, is a clinical social worker and head of the Spanish Service Team at Children's Hospital.

MARY ROBINSON, M. Div., is a board-certified chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care at Children's Hospital.