Objective: To explore the experiences and life events regarding the cultural competence in the public health practice. Methods: A qualitative meta-synthesis covering the databases Medline, OvidNursing, OvidJournal, Embase and BVS-LILACS, including papers in English, Spanish and Portuguese between 2009 and 2014. Ten studies were included and assessed by using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme in Spanish (CASPe). The three stages of the meta-aggregation programme were applied to do the obtaining and synthesis of findings. Results: the findings were aggregated in six categories and two types of results: 1) paradoxeswhen providing public health care to people from different culture and 2) going beyond the barriers – the daring by the public health nurses. Conclusion: the nurses experienced and expressed their cultural competence from the paradoxical situation produced when encountering another culturally different people. They showed a stance open to both understand and make sense of the other’s culture, even though it was hard to produce culturally competent interventions.