Developing Cultural Competence in Physical Therapy Practice

Jill Black Lattanzi uses the renowned 'Purnell Model for Cultural Competence' as an organizing framework for her text, taking a tried and true approach to the understanding of culture and making it applicable to the field of physical therapy. Part 1 addresses the basic concepts and definitions of culture and leads students toward a better understanding of their own culture as a springboard for considering how care can be culturally appropriate for patients. Part 2 features culture-specific information from contributors who are physical therapy experts of various culturally diverse patient populations. The text aims to get students and clinicians to recognize that they are predisposed to having a bias toward others on the way to developing care that is both sensitive and effective.