Understanding people and the health care environment
Order Instructions:
Discuss the factors contributing to the breakdown between health care providers and patients from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, therefore, discuss influence of culture on communication & access to health care services and what are some of the communication barriers to accessing health with patients from a different cultural background (focus on refugees in Australia).
Explore the impact of people’s ( immigrants/refugees/culturally diverse people) ) engagement with health care services.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Understanding people and the health care environment
It is hypothesized that language barrier is an independent variable; which is responsible for poor access to quality healthcare by Australian Refugees. Several surveys indicate that the quality of care correlates with the nature of the relationship between the healthcare provider and the patient. According to Refugee statistics in 2014, there are about 11.7million refuges being hosted in developed countries; 0.3% of them are hosted in Australia. Additionally, over the last decades, there has been increased in population of the foreign-born. This rapid growth of refugee has increased healthcare disparities associated with the language barrier and cultural diversity in Australia (Clarke et al. 2014).
In this context, culture refers to a pattern of human being behavior; beliefs, practices, values and other customs. Cultural values and beliefs affect healthcare in many ways. First, culture affects people’s way of seeking care. Some cultures have different beliefs on disease etiology which influences the decision making processes; especially when choosing the preferred type of therapy. Additionally, cultural familiarity with healthcare systems could influence acceptability of modern care. Cultural aspects, influence people’s way of life such as adapting to health-related knowledge or lifestyle; in some cases, it influences the relationship and interaction with the healthcare provider (Artuso et al. 2013)
Culture has many systems; one aspect of systems includes communication and language. There is a partial overlap between culture and language. For example, refugees who speak French can be from different parts of the world with distinct culture. Therefore, there is diversity within the similar language-speaking community; and beyond the broad statistical grouping (Hiruy & Mwanri 2013). The healthcare conventional model depicts a strong relationship between several independent variables which influence the ability to access healthcare facility; and to utilize the resources; these variables include predisposing characteristics such as age; sex, and ethnicity (Davies et al. 2014).
The issues of language barriers are also independent variables which have been identified to have an effect on healthcare. The language barrier makes people have difficulty in expressing their signs and symptoms; have difficulty in understanding the foreign medical terminology or even follow the necessary instructions towards accessing care (Al Abed et al. 2014). For example, it has been found that non-speaking women are less likely to receive mammogram or Pap smear test. The research study also found that the nonspeaking community lack regular primary care; which is associated with a reduced quality of life. The language barrier is associated with lack of access to healthcare; and is often associated with reduced access to transport and medical insurance (Mahmoud et al. 2012).
Language and cultural components are often used interchangeably, such that impacts of culture are often indistinguishable with those of culture. However, proficiency in language does not necessarily imply that a person understands its cultural values and beliefs. For instance, a person born in one continent could choose to learn a different language from a dissimilar continent (Clarke et al. 2014). Though the person may be fluent in speaking and understanding foreign language, he or she may not understand health values and beliefs, alternative health remedies and existing rituals. In this context, learning foreign language only improves patient-doctor communication; but, it would not overcome the prevailing cultural differences and influences to healthcare systems (Cheng, Drillich & Schattner 2015).
The language barrier causes many individuals to be unfamiliar with health care systems in Australia. This often results to misunderstandings between healthcare providers and service users. This makes the service users experience that the health system is crisis oriented; making it difficult for the patient to understand processes in preventive care and schedule appointment. The recent study on asylum seeking refugees indicated that they did not understand why they would not receive treatment when they went to hospitals without appointment. Others had different interpretation and perception of emergency, and would show up in the emergency department even with no emergency condition (Al Abed et al. 2014).
The language barrier also affects the quality of care to service user as well as patient satisfaction. The language barrier result to medical errors which put patient safety in danger. Studies done indicated that medical error incidences were more common when service user and service providers spoke different languages. The language barrier could result to in accurate recording of the patient’s medical history, poor communication could also lead to erroneous prognosis or misdiagnoses. Additionally, language barriers could make patients fail to follow medical instructions, overtreatment of patients and interfere with medical adherence (Zhang et al. 2015).
The language barrier and cultural barriers influence people’s healthcare literacy. Health literacy refers to the people’s ability to gather knowledge; process and comprehend the basic healthcare and social care information. Health literacy is a component of effective communication and is affiliated with the language barrier (Al Abed et al. 2014). Health literacy is inversely associated with education attainment and socioeconomic background. However, there is need to carry out more research to establish the exact relationship between the language barrier, cultural barriers and servicer user and provider relationship and on specific healthcare outcomes. The research should look into the role of English /language proficiency, cultural diversity on health literacy; and how it impacts the patient’s outcome (Clarke et al. 2014).
References
Al Abed, N., Hickman, L., Jackson, D., Digiacomo, M. and Davidson, P. (2014). Editorial. Contemporary Nurse, 46(2), pp.259-262.
Artuso, S., Cargo, M., Brown, A. and Daniel, M. (2013). Factors influencing health care utilization among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), p.83.
Cheng, I., Drillich, A. and Schattner, P. (2015). Refugee experiences of general practice in countries of resettlement: a literature review. British Journal of General Practice, 65(632), pp.e171-e176.
Clark, A., Gilbert, A., Rao, D. and Kerr, L. (2014). Excuse me; do any of you ladies speak English? Perspectives of refugee women living in South Australia: barriers to accessing primary health care and achieving the Quality Use of Medicines. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 20(1), p.92.
Davies, J., Bukulatjpi, S., Sharma, S., Davis, J. and Johnston, V. (2014). Only your blood can tell the story€ – a qualitative research study using semi- structured interviews to explore the hepatitis B related knowledge, perceptions and experiences of remote dwelling Indigenous Australians and their health care providers in northern Australia. BMC Public Health, 14(1), p.1233.
Hiruy, K. and Mwanri, L. (2013). End-of-life experiences and expectations of Africans in Australia: Cultural implications for palliative and hospice care. Nursing Ethics, 21(2), pp.187-197.
Mahmoud, I., Hou, X., Chu, K. and Clark, M. (2012). Language and utilisation of emergency care in Queensland. Emerg Med Australas, 25(1), pp.40-45.
Zhang, X., Yu, P., Yan, J. and Ton A M Spil, I. (2015). Using diffusion of innovation theory to understand the factors impacting patient acceptance and use of consumer e-health innovations: a case study in a primary care clinic. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1).
We can write this or a similar paper for you! Simply fill the order form!
