The need for nursing and midwifery programmes of education to address the health care needs of minority ethnic groups

The article reviews some of the moreinfluential literature of the past decade on the health needs of ethnic groups, in an effort to identify what is being done by nursing and midwifery education to address the health care needs of these groups and to prepare practitioners who are able to respond to these needs.
The article suggests that despite therelative lack of progress in this field of health care and education, there still exists much confusion, disagreement and lack of clarity around many issues, such as the identification of relevant content, the integration of this content into the curriculum and more importantly the delivery of this content.
The literature seems to point to a lackof cultural knowledge, particularly for certain ethnic groups, which needs to be rectified. But even when knowledge is available, the evidence clearly indicates that both educators and practitioners are failing to translate this into effective and culturally sensitive care.
The article suggests that nursing andmidwifery education could and should play an important role in the development and dissemination of culturally sensitive care.