Cultural pluralism in health care: a South-African-Canadian comparison.

Views on the acceptance of cultural pluralism in health care are shaped by myriad of social and cultural factors. Through the comparison of Canada and South Africa, this article examines how ideology, history, demographics, and the cultural understanding of illness have shaped the views of cultural pluralism in South Africa in a way that is distinct from the Canadian perspective. Canadian health-care workers must consider such differences as we must be careful not to apply the concept of cultural pluralism in a way that people of other cultures may not understand or value. As the breadth of Canadian international health-care initiative grows, it is important to consider how other nations perceive cultural pluralism; otherwise, the application of our views on pluralism in health care can fail.