Cultural Allies: Creating Allegiances Across Borders

Abstract
Culture brokerage, as a nursing intervention is a strategy that is intended to assist nurses to “bridge” the gap between the orthodox health care system and the health belief systems of clients and their families who are from “different” cultures.  However, this intervention often reinforces and solidifies borders, rather than expanding or eliminating them. Culture brokerage will be examined against social constructions of “borders”,  “Others”, and the poser relationships that influence these constructions.  Fein’s (1979) “universe of obligation” will provide the framework for a critique of the culture brokerage intervention.