Healthcare professionals’ encounters with ethnic minority patients: The critical incident approach

Abstract

Ethnic minority patients face challenges concerning communication and are at higher risk of experiencing health problems and consuming fewer healthcare services. They are also exposed to disparaging societal discourses about migrants which might undermine healthcare institutions’ ambitions of equitable health care. Therefore, healthcare professionals need to critically reflect on their practices and processes related to ethnic minority patients. The aim of this article is to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences of working with ethnic minority patients by using the critical incident (CI) technique. In two focus group sessions, participants discussed challenging events in their encounters with patients. The critical incidents show that healthcare professionals may experience unfamiliar situations related to their work performance, prejudice toward patients, and labeling by patients the professionals do not identify with. The professionals’ reflections are discussed in relation to social discourses on migration and their work conditions, and the possible influence on the professionals’ preconceptions and the patient–professional relationship in health care. Reflections about work experiences with ethnic minority patients and aligned societal discourses should be included in healthcare workers’ professional development. Critical incident reflections at work may contribute to better‐coping strategies for healthcare professionals and improved patient–professional relationships with ethnic minority patients.

Looking through racism in the nurse–patient relationship from the lens of culturally congruent care: A scoping review

“…From the macro‐perspective, power bias innated in the patient–nurse relationship. Considering patients in a weaker social position was the main cause of racist incidents (Debesay et al, 2021; Purtzer & Thomas, 2019).…”

“…Trust, mistrust, racial identity and patient satisfaction in urban African American primary care patients of nurse practitioners (Benkert et al, 2009) Journal work-related stress among nurses (Debesay et al, 2014(Debesay et al, , 2021. Patients mainly were dissatisfied with receiving support by nurses and complained about nurses' superior, cold and without sympathy communication style, inattention to their caring needs, not receiving suitable education, not spending enough time with patients and frequent nurses' turnover (Lyles et al, 2011;Martin et al, 2016;McFadden & Erikson, 2020).…”

“…From the macro-perspective, power bias innated in the patient-nurse relationship. Considering patients in a weaker social position was the main cause of racist incidents (Debesay et al, 2021;Purtzer & Thomas, 2019). Nurses did not consider their position higher than patients in the nurse-patient interaction rounds.…”

“…Nurses faced uncertainties with regard to how withhold their own personal prejudices and at the same time provide nursing care according to professional commitments(Debesay et al, 2021;Purtzer & Thomas, 2019).Apparently, health disparities occurred given tensions between nurses and patients rooted in racist perspectives. They hindered nurses' efforts to provide appropriate care to patients and improve the nurse-patient relationship.…”

Change and Development in the Cultural Dimension of Language Teaching, and Beyond

“…While the technique was not developed for intercultural training, it is suited for this purpose. Some recent studies from Norway explore the use of critical incidents to make healthcare students and healthcare professionals critically reflect on their intercultural encounters (Debesay et al, 2022;Horntvedt & Fougner, 2015).…”