Culturalizing the ethnic patient: educational films and images of interethnic relations in health care.
In the wake of an apparent increased utilization of health services by people from ethnic minorities and the perceptions of this as problematic, an educational 'offensive' has been launched in The Netherlands.  It is directed at ethnic minority groups and health care professionals, and makes extensive use of educational films. In this article, we discuss results of a qualitative analysis of the ways in which educational films represent interethnic relations in health care, and compare them with the outcomes of an earlier analysis of educational films on discrimination and racism.  Instead of a tendency to moralize ethnic attitudes of whites in the latter, we found that films on health care presuppose a professional will to learn and to adapt, but at the same time they emphasize the obstacles posed by ethnic backgrounds.  In such films, the traditional culture, rather than institutional constraints, figures as the main reason for the setbacks the ethnic patient experiences and for the problems professionals face in order to accommodate the new situation.  Educational films on ethnic minorities and health (care) could be improved by analysing problems rather than focusing on ready-made solutions, and by paying attention to institutional constraints rather than showing a seemingly boundless flexibility of medical professionals in their interaction with ethnic minorities.
Department of Adult Education and Information, University of Leiden, The Netherlands.
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D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D009040:Motion Pictures; D009426:Netherlands; D011287:Prejudice; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013664:Teaching Materials