Immigrants and patient education on health care.
Immigration is one of the key problems affecting countries like American where 44.8 million immigrants were recorded in 2018. Despite this, they have a positive effect on the country’s economy through their complement in the country's labour force. They help in making the country more innovative due to the increased competition in the market. The high completion leads to the development of a better education system helping the country to grow economically through the provision of a more specialised labour force. Due to their low education qualification and other difficulties associated with the difference in culture, ethnicity and social aspect, they are disadvantaged in taking the manual work in the community. The effects on the cultural level amount to the negative effects in their accessibility of the patient education due to the difference in language used and cultural beliefs.
The main problem affecting immigrant education by the health care provider is the difference in the cultural language. The most difficult thing the health care profession has with the immigrant is how to create a rapport especially when they do not speak in English (Filler, Jameel, & Gagliardi, 2020). Their inability to communicate more directly affects their shared decision-making between the patient and the health care. This makes it ineffective for the health care workers to provide patient education due to the language barrier caused by differences in culture. The language barrier creates a sense of insecurity in the health care providers and the patient. The patient’s inability to understand the physician creates a lack of trust thus affecting the aspects that require their combined effort in the health care education. This affects the information provided to the patient as the physician withholds information to reduce confusion. The failed communication leads to the physician making decisions for the patient as shared decision-making is hindered.
The main cultural barrier is the beliefs and customs exercised by the various immigrant especially the tradition. Most of the immigrants are reluctant to involve themselves in the western methods in health care due to their traditions. This makes them express some hesitation when seeking the western model of health care provision from the physicians. Education thus becomes hard, as they tend to depend on their cultural means to get the health care services. The effects are commonly felt in cases of the use of the current technology that provides the main source of education on the patients’ health care. This is due to the immigrant's reluctance to use the technology. The difference in culture requires the health care providers to understand the cultural differences thus determining the right language and phrases to use. This is due to the differences in the meaning of words and phrases in the different cultures. The failure to understand the differences creates the biggest obstacles to patient education.
Devising a common language can be the key measure in solving the cultural differences in dialects. The language will be the key in enhancing the communication between the patient and health care provides that allowing the patient education and shared decision making. A common language will also allow the patient and the physician to communicate effectively allowing shared decision-making. This eliminates the difficulties associated with the understanding of the patient culture thus providing a good means for patient education (Ahmed, et al., 2020). Trust in health care is achieved through the development of a rapport between the patient and the health care providers. This allows the provision of high-quality services as all factors that affect health education are sorted through communication between the two parties. Factors affecting communication include the difference in cultural beliefs and language differences that are sorted through the common language.
References.
Ahmed, S., Lee, S., Shommu, N., Rumana, N., & Turin, T. (2017). Experiences of communication barriers between physicians and immigrant patients: A systematic review and thematic synthesis. Patient Experience Journal, 4(1), 122-140.
Filler, T., Jameel, B., & Gagliardi, A. R. (2020). Barriers and facilitators of patient centered care for immigrant and refugee women: a scoping review. BMC public health, 20(1), 1-12.
