Cultural awareness in healthcare providers is considered one of the most important factors in improving the efficiency and quality of care in a diverse population. Thus, education in cultural awareness needs to be an essential component in nursing education. This study, which uses a qualitative design, aimed to investigate cultural awareness in nursing students in Sweden. Focus groups were used to collect data from 12 students. Three categories were identified as follows after qualitative data analysis of the interviews: 1) desire to learn, 2) learning by doing and 3) caring beyond boundaries. The result clearly indicates that students are willing to learn more about how to care for people with different cultural backgrounds. However, this learning is not always available in official lecture-based education. In fact, most awareness about cultural aspects of healthcare is developed from practice and informal education.

Finally, the result also revealed the importance of nurses being able to see the individual beyond the culture, and being aware of their own prejudice. In conclusion, education offers limited opportunities for nursing students to become culturally aware. Nursing education can be improved by strengthening both theoretical and practical tasks involving cultural awareness.

Aims and objectives: To evaluate a walk-in centre at a healthcare centre in an immigrant-dense area where a high proportion of the patients have limited language ability in Swedish, from the perspective of healthcare personnel. Background: Increased global migration results in higher vulnerability in migrants, with the risk of increased morbidity and mortality. Migrants’ health often deteriorates, which can be attributed to an increased level of stress and adaptation to a new lifestyle. Therefore, immigrants are at higher risk of being affected by, for example, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. This requires access to good health care. Design: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted, using semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used in the analysis process. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were held with 15 purposively sampled doctors and nurses, working at a healthcare centre in Sweden. Data were collected during autumn 2017. The study was performed in accordance with COREQ. Results: Working at the walk-in centre involved caring for everything from basic to advanced health problems and meant a high pace that required stress-resistant personnel. The walk-in centre was described as both promoting and threatening patient safety. The personnel had several ideas on how to develop the walk-in centre. Conclusions: A walk-in centre can be seen as a necessity related to issues of ensuring patient safety and delivering care for everyone in an immigrant-dense area. However, it cannot be the only form of care offered, as it seems not be adapted to certain groups, such as people with disabilities and the elderly. Relevance to clinical practice: The findings emphasise that a walk-in centre is a way to increase accessibility for the entire population and offer equal care for all, even if it involves challenges that need to be addressed.

Aim To compare foreign‐ and Swedish‐born persons, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, to study whether there are dissimilarities in knowledge about diabetes and to study determinants of knowledge.

Design A cross‐sectional descriptive study was conducted.

Method Data were collected between September 2014 and March 2016, using the standardized Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT), statistically analysed.

Results The results showed dissimilarities in knowledge between foreign‐ and Swedish‐born persons, supporting the hypothesis that foreign‐born persons had lower knowledge about diabetes than Swedish‐born persons. There was a relationship between poor knowledge and country of birth, marital status and employment status. Country of birth was the strongest independent determinant of knowledge about diabetes. The risk of poor knowledge was ten times higher among persons born in the Middle East or in another country outside Europe compared with Swedish‐born persons. Other influencing factors for poor knowledge about diabetes were being not gainfully employed and living alone.

Background Due to increasing international migration, Sweden has become a multicultural and multilingual society, with about 19% of the population born abroad, which imposes high demands on the healthcare sector and interpreting services. The aim was to investigate problems in the use of interpreters as recorded by healthcare staff and the interpreter service in a region in Sweden. Methods Cross-sectional register-based study. The study focused on a geographically well-defined region in Sweden including (a) specialized care at three hospitals; (b) local healthcare, including out-patient clinics at hospital and emergency healthcare and primary healthcare; and (c) dental care. The study was based on 726 existing incident reports on the interpreting service and information from the interpreter agency from 2012 and the first quarter of 2016 during a period of a massive influx of refugees. Results The highest number of adverse advents was reported in local healthcare and mainly concerned the absence of an interpreter at the appointed time. Non-authorized in-person interpreters performed most interpretation assignments and Arabic was the most requested language. Conclusions This study highlights the significance of good cooperation between healthcare and the interpreter service in order to guarantee safe and high-quality healthcare for patients in need of interpreters to be able to communicate in healthcare.

Aim

The study aims to describe the establishment of a culturally specific nursing home for Finnish-speaking older persons in Sweden.

Design

A descriptive qualitative study.

Methods

A descriptive case study based on a review of 14 public documents and individual interviews with two experts in the area, analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Results

This study found that shared language, preservation of customs and habits and collaboration between the representatives of the municipality, Finnish-speaking migrant associations and staff at the nursing home influenced the development of the culturally specific nursing home for older Finnish-speaking people intended to avoid loneliness, isolation and misunderstandings among older Finnish-speaking. Collaboration between healthcare service for older persons and minority people resulted in an optimal culturally specific nursing home, simultaneously encountering the majority culture. Nursing and healthcare services need to be aware of positive effects of collaboration with stakeholders to achieve optimal culturally specific nursing homes.

Introduction: Previous studies have shown that a light sedation level is beneficial for intubated patients in the Intensive care unit (ICU). 

Aim: This study aimed to describe intensive care nurses’ experiences of caring for intubated patients under light sedation. 

Methods: This study was an explorative descriptive qualitative study. Data were collected from 12 intensive care nurses by three focus group interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. 

Findings: Five categories emerged from the data: 1) the importance of verbal communication and the nurses’ presence, 2) feelings of frustration and heavy workload, 3) assessment of patients’ pain and anxiety, 4) the nurses’ desire for the development of guidelines, and 5) being inspired by the care. 

Conclusion: The study found that intensive care nurses were positive towards light sedation care but the organization of care did not support them as the patients cared for with light sedation treatments demanded their physical presence at patients’ bed site.

Background: With an increasing migrant population globally the need to organize interpreting service arises in emergency healthcare to deliver equitable high-quality care. The aims of this study were to describe interpretation practices in multilingual emergency health service institutions and to explore the impact of the organizational and institutional context and possible consequences of different approaches to interpretation. No previous studies on these issues in multilingual emergency care have been found. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was used. Forty-six healthcare professionals were purposively recruited from different organizational levels in ambulance service and psychiatric and somatic emergency care units. Data were collected between December 2014 and April 2015 through focus-group and individual interviews, and analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Results: Organization of interpreters was based on patients' health status, context of emergency care, and access to interpreter service. Differences existed between workplaces regarding the use of interpreters: in somatic emergency care bilingual healthcare staff and family members were used to a limited extent; in psychiatric emergency care the norm was to use professional interpreters on the spot; and in ambulance service persons available at the time, e.g. family and friends were used. Similarities were found in: procuring a professional interpreter, mainly based on informal workplace routines, sometimes on formal guidelines and national laws, but knowledge of existing laws was limited; the ideal was a linguistically competent interpreter with a professional attitude, and organizational aspects such as appropriate time, technical and social environment; and wishes for development of better procedures for prompt access to professional interpreters at the workplace, regardless of organizational context, and education of interpreters and users. Conclusion: Use of interpreters was determined by health professionals, based on the patients' health status, striving to deliver as fast and individualized care as possible based on humanistic values. Defects in organizational routines need to be rectified and transcultural awareness is needed to achieve the aim of person-centered and equal healthcare. Clear formal guidelines for the use of interpreters in emergency healthcare need to be developed and it is important to fulfill health professionals' wishes for future development of prompt access to interpreters and education of interpreters and users.

In this essay, we investigate the learning and teaching experiences in the international classroom from both the teachers and the students’ perspectives. The findings of this study showed that language barriers are one of the difficulties, but academic cultural differences seem to play a more important role that can impact on the learning outcomes in the international classroom. This can also lead to negative experiences and the forming of stereotypical views of international students solely based on their educational background. 

Background/Objective: Cultural awareness refers to when someone is aware of his/her own and other people’s cultural values. Academic nursing education should promote students’ ability to analyze, understand, and respect people’s cultural backgrounds and their values to be able provide equitable care in a multicultural society. This essential competence for nursing students can be obtained through learning and practicing to prioritize people’s greatest needs. The aim of this study was to explore students’ cultural awareness related to their nursing education by considering their socio-demographic background.

Methods: This quantitative study was conducted by means of a pre-designed Cultural Awareness Scale. In total, 215 students participated in this study. Descriptive statistics were used to report the distribution of the data, and regression analysis was carried out to assess the statistical significance of the association between the variables.

Results: The results indicated moderately high cultural awareness among nursing students related to their general education, cognitive awareness, comfort with interaction, and clinical practice/patient care. Nevertheless, no statistically significant correlation was identified between the socio-demographic factors (sex, age, and experience of living abroad). However, being a first generation immigrant was significantly associated with better cultural awareness in terms of Patient Care/Clinical Issue.

Conclusions: In Sweden, universities are free to design their educational programs since there is no universal curriculum that applies to all the universities; nonetheless, the relatively high level of cultural awareness remained the same for the universities under investigation. This finding suggests that the importance of cultural awareness in nursing education is recognized in this context.

This study aimed to explore how professional interpreters experience their role in a healthcare encounter. An explorative study with semi-structured individual interviews and written descriptions was conducted with a purposeful sample of nine professional interpreters who represented the migrant population in Sweden. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse data. The findings showed that the professional interpreters viewed their role as to transfer information accurately, to keep confidentiality, to remain impartial and to perform the duties related to their work assignments. However, the study also found a number of factors and challenges that influenced this role. These were: 1) the form of interpretation, 2) the interpretation environment, 3) the employment conditions and personal characteristics of the interpreters, and 4) the behaviour of the patient and healthcare staff during the interpretation session. The study found that professional interpreters experienced their role as aligning with the existing guidelines regarding an interpreter’s role and ethical attitude. Healthcare service providers, policymakers and interpreter agencies should focus on improving training and support and development opportunities in order to increase the impact of interpretation on equality and quality of healthcare.