CROSS-CULTURAL EFFECTS ON CANCER PATIENT-DOCTOR COMMUNICATION
Journal Title: European Journal of Business and Social Sciences - Year 2013, Vol 1, Issue 12
Abstract
At no other point in time have so many different people and cultures come into contact with one another. This means that medical practitioners will come into contact with patients from all over the world from many different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is important to have an understanding of how culture affects doctorpatient communication. There is a growing body of research that indicates that the cultural and ethnic differences between patients and practitioners play an important role in the patient-doctor partnership and have an impact on effective and open communication. The aim of this paper is to explore whether a patient’s culture, race and language influence the quality of the patientdoctor communication and relationship. As the findings of this journal indicate, there are many factors that influence doctor-patient communication. For example, if a patient who is not able to speak or read English visits a doctor in an Englishspeaking country; they may not be able to express what is wrong and how they feel. Those patients may even avoid visiting a doctor all together as they are not able to communicate effectively with the doctor. Culture also pays an important role in doctor-patient communication, as due to cultural factors some patients cannot or do not feel comfortable talking about their illness and may not seek help outside their immediate family. Additionally, some patients from minority groups may not be well educated and may not have much knowledge about the illness that they are diagnosed with or understand some basic medical terminology. Practitioners therefore need to have an understanding of cultural difference and take culture into consideration when dealing with patients from minority groups. If medical professionals fail to take culture seriously, they will fail to understand the value systems held by those patients with different backgrounds. They will also fail to understand how to effectively communicate with their patients and that in some cultures truth-telling is either not done directly or at all.
Authors and Affiliations
Dr. Sabina Cerimagic| PhD, MBus, MProjMgmt, BBioMedSc, BHlthSc, DipCouns&Cmn Project Manager – University of Sydney (Sydney Medical School) Guest Lecturer – University of Technology Sydney
Keywords
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