Doctors, nurses or other health care workers who are new to an area that includes significant numbers of patients from a different cultural group may find themselves faced with a barrage of folk-lore from older hands. This is not always dispassionately given; those that have been in the field a long time may have become discouraged and unreliable witnesses, passing on hearsay rather than first-hand experience. Generalizations tend to fuel anxieties rather than enlarge one’s views, and most health care professionals have to learn on the job. This may involve re-learning and adjusting preconceived ideas.
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