Achieving the Right to Health of Immigrants: Focusing on Intercultural Competence

Abstract

In the clinical field that provides health care services to immigrants, various medical ethics issues are raised, including discrimination, prejudice, hatred, lack of cultural sensitivity, and lack of understanding of various disease belief systems. The development of intercultural competence of health care workers to resolve this is an urgent task. Within a cultural background and context, care of patients from different cultures can be effectively and appropriately performed. Intercultural competencies of healthcare workers must continuously develop and strive for must be dealt with in various aspects of attitude, cognition, knowledge, and skill. Behavioral changes of health care workers must be brought about. Through this paper, we will examine the concepts, components, and intercultural competency process models, and examine the implications of strengthening the intercultural competence of health care workers for achieving right to health, a universal human right that migrants should have.