Immigrants in emergency care: Swedish health care staff's experiences
(2005) In International Nursing Review 52(4). p.276-285- Abstract
- Background: During the past few decades Sweden has developed into a multicultural society. The proportion of patients with different cultural backgrounds increases, which naturally makes new demands on health care staff. Aim: To identify whether staff in somatic and psychiatric emergency care experienced problems in the care of migrants, and if so to compare these. Method: The study design was explorative. Focus group interviews of 22 women and 13 men working as nurses and assistant nurses at an emergency ward, an ambulance service and a psychiatric intensive care unit were held. Findings: The results showed that the main problems experienced in all wards were difficulties related to caring for asylum-seeking refugees. Some dissimilarities... (More)
- Background: During the past few decades Sweden has developed into a multicultural society. The proportion of patients with different cultural backgrounds increases, which naturally makes new demands on health care staff. Aim: To identify whether staff in somatic and psychiatric emergency care experienced problems in the care of migrants, and if so to compare these. Method: The study design was explorative. Focus group interviews of 22 women and 13 men working as nurses and assistant nurses at an emergency ward, an ambulance service and a psychiatric intensive care unit were held. Findings: The results showed that the main problems experienced in all wards were difficulties related to caring for asylum-seeking refugees. Some dissimilarities were revealed: unexpected behaviours in migrants related to cultural differences described by staff working in the emergency ward; migrants' refusal to eat and drink and their inactive behaviour in the psychiatric ward; and a lot of non-emergency runs by the ambulance staff because of language barriers between the emergency services centre and migrants. Conclusion: The main problems experienced by the healthcare staff were situations in which they were confronted with the need to care for asylum-seeking refugees. Practice implications: These emphasize the importance of support from organizational structures and national policies to develop models for caring for asylum-seeking refugees. Simple routines and facilities to communicate with foreign-language-speaking migrants need to be developed. Health care staff need a deeper understanding of individual needs in the light of migrational and cultural background. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/407439
- author
- Hultsjo, S and Hjelm, Katarina LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2005
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- migrants, health care staff, emergency, ambulance, asylum-seeking refugees, psychiatry
- in
- International Nursing Review
- volume
- 52
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 276 - 285
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000238050100017
- pmid:16238724
- scopus:27644482904
- ISSN
- 0020-8132
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1466-7657.2005.00418.x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 53a86d19-f56a-48b4-82bf-e38b50bd1800 (old id 407439)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:39:05
- date last changed
- 2022-03-20 08:55:15
@article{53a86d19-f56a-48b4-82bf-e38b50bd1800, abstract = {{Background: During the past few decades Sweden has developed into a multicultural society. The proportion of patients with different cultural backgrounds increases, which naturally makes new demands on health care staff. Aim: To identify whether staff in somatic and psychiatric emergency care experienced problems in the care of migrants, and if so to compare these. Method: The study design was explorative. Focus group interviews of 22 women and 13 men working as nurses and assistant nurses at an emergency ward, an ambulance service and a psychiatric intensive care unit were held. Findings: The results showed that the main problems experienced in all wards were difficulties related to caring for asylum-seeking refugees. Some dissimilarities were revealed: unexpected behaviours in migrants related to cultural differences described by staff working in the emergency ward; migrants' refusal to eat and drink and their inactive behaviour in the psychiatric ward; and a lot of non-emergency runs by the ambulance staff because of language barriers between the emergency services centre and migrants. Conclusion: The main problems experienced by the healthcare staff were situations in which they were confronted with the need to care for asylum-seeking refugees. Practice implications: These emphasize the importance of support from organizational structures and national policies to develop models for caring for asylum-seeking refugees. Simple routines and facilities to communicate with foreign-language-speaking migrants need to be developed. Health care staff need a deeper understanding of individual needs in the light of migrational and cultural background.}}, author = {{Hultsjo, S and Hjelm, Katarina}}, issn = {{0020-8132}}, keywords = {{migrants; health care staff; emergency; ambulance; asylum-seeking refugees; psychiatry}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{4}}, pages = {{276--285}}, publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}}, series = {{International Nursing Review}}, title = {{Immigrants in emergency care: Swedish health care staff's experiences}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-7657.2005.00418.x}}, doi = {{10.1111/j.1466-7657.2005.00418.x}}, volume = {{52}}, year = {{2005}}, }