Greenlanders in hospital; lack of language understanding is not always a hindrance to intercultural communication. Comparison of interviews of Greenlandic patients and their Danish therapists with respect to concepts of communication, patient satisfaction, disease, and health.
In four hospitals in Greenland, 50 Greenlandic patients and their Danish therapists have been interviewed about the same topics. The interviews were semistructured with open ended questions on the following subjects: Language difficulties, perception of diagnosis, patients satisfaction and points of criticism, perception of disease and treatment, and experience of health in general. In spite of language difficulties and insufficient communication, patient satisfaction occurred in most of the consultations. There was a tendency towards the elder patients being more satisfied than the younger. It does not seem to be a necessity to achieve a good treatment-result that the patients and the therapists speak the same language and share the same concepts of health and disease. Where the foreign health service can be limited so that it is not viewed as a menace to culturally related concept of disease, the consultations give rise to the best patient-satisfaction.
Clinical Psychological Department, Psychiatric Hospital of Arhus, Denmark.
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P
Elsass
H P
HP
Christensen
J
J
Falhof
A
A
Hvolby
D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003718:Denmark; D006116:Greenland; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D004930:Inuit; D007802:Language; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations