The cross-cultural relationships between nurses and Filipino Canadian patients.
OBJECTIVE
To describe culturally embedded values that implicitly guide Filipino Canadian patients' interactions with Canadian nurses and are integral to nurse-patient relationships.


METHODS
A focused ethnography was conducted, with a purposive sample of 23 Filipino-Canadians who received care in Canadian hospitals. Data consisted of interviews, field notes, and diary.


RESULTS
When receiving care, patients delineated hindi ibang tao (one of us) and ibang tao (not one of us) and this determined their preference for who performed personal and private tasks or received information. The urgency of the patients' conditions, the intimacy required for most nursing procedures, and short hospitalizations meant that patients often interacted without progressing through the cultural levels of pakikitungo (formality), pakikibagay (adjustability), and pakikisama (acceptance). Rather, the crisis of being hospitalized forced patients to immediately move toward the cultural levels of pakikipagpalagayang-loob (mutual comfort) or pakikiisa (oneness). Patients' willingness to trust and to share their kapwa-oriented worldview in relating with fellow human beings, and their use of their languages of words, gaze, touch, and food, allowed nurses to become hindi ibang tao (one of us). Caregiving roles and establishing relationships also distinguished that hindi ibang tao (one of us) was to bantay (watch over) the patient, whereas ibang tao (not one of us) was expected to alaga (care for) them (i.e., provide professional care).


CONCLUSIONS
Communicating and caring effectively requires understanding of Filipino Canadians' languages of words, gaze, touch, and food and their levels of interaction. Culturally safe nurse-patient relationships can then develop.
Pasco
Alberta Catherine Y
AC
Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. apasco@ualberta.ca
Morse
Janice M
JM
Olson
Joanne K
JK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002170:Canada; D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016294:Models, Nursing; D008960:Models, Psychological; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010679:Philippines / Q000208:ethnology; D012660:Semantics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016746:Transcultural Nursing / Q000379:methods