Exploring Why and How Encounters with the Norwegian Health-care System Can Be Considered Culturally Unsafe by North Sami-speaking Patients and Relatives: A Qualitative Study Based on 11 Interviews

Overview

Journal Int J Circumpolar Health

Date 2019 May 11

PMID 31072273

Citations 13

Authors

Grete Mehus

Berit Andersdatter Bongo

Janne Isaksen Engnes

Pertice M Moffitt

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Citizens of Norway have free and equal access to healthcare. Nurses are expected to be culturally sensitive and have cultural knowledge in encounters with patients. Culturally safe care is considered both a process and an outcome, evaluated by whether the patients feel safe, empowered and cared for, or not. All patients request equal access to quality care in Norway, also Sami patients.

Objectives: The aim of the study is to identify whether Sami patients and relatives feel culturally safe in encounters with healthcare, and if not, what are the main concerns.

Methods: This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews in the North Sami language, with 11 North Sami participants.The transcribed data were analysed through a lens of cultural safety by content analysis.

Findings: Data analysis explicated themes including: use of Sami language, Sami identity and cultural practices, connections to positive health outcomes to enhance cultural safe care and well-being for North-Sami people encountering the Norwegian health-care system.

Conclusion: Culturally safe practices at the institutional, group and individual levels are essential to the well-being of Sami people. An engagement in culturally safe practices will facilitate (or) fulfil political and jurisdictional promises made to the Sami people, consequently improving positive impact of healthcare.

Citing Articles

Wishing for a more sober society: A scoping review on addiction problems and treatment in Greenland preceding the 2016 national treatment strategy.

Flyger Holflod J, Larsen C, Niclasen B, Nielsen A Nordisk Alkohol Nark. 2024; :14550725241276306.

PMID: 39563976 PMC: 11572557. DOI: 10.1177/14550725241276306.

Sámi Healthcare Staff Experiences of Encounters with Sámi Patients and Their Expectations for Non-Sámi Healthcare Staff.

Mentsen Ness T, Mehus G Nurs Rep. 2024; 14(4):2719-2732.

PMID: 39449438 PMC: 11503313. DOI: 10.3390/nursrep14040201.

"Sometimes I Get So Extremely Tired": Sámi Healthcare Staff Experiences of Cultural Load in Practice.

Mentsen Ness T, Mehus G Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2024; 11:23333936241273256.

PMID: 39351590 PMC: 11440554. DOI: 10.1177/23333936241273256.

Healthcare practitioners' perspectives of providing palliative care to patients from culturally diverse backgrounds: a qualitative systematic review.

Burke C, Doody O, Lloyd B BMC Palliat Care. 2023; 22(1):182.

PMID: 37978500 PMC: 10655398. DOI: 10.1186/s12904-023-01285-3.

The cultural meaning of Sámi language, costume, and food to the Sámi, from the perspective of well-being.

Tervo H, Laukkanen E, Kuosmanen L Int J Circumpolar Health. 2022; 81(1):2133349.

PMID: 36222024 PMC: 9578450. DOI: 10.1080/22423982.2022.2133349.

References

Woods M . Cultural safety and the socioethical nurse. Nurs Ethics. 2010; 17(6):715-25. DOI: 10.1177/0969733010379296. View

Smye V, Browne A . 'Cultural safety' and the analysis of health policy affecting aboriginal people. Nurse Res. 2002; 9(3):42-56. DOI: 10.7748/nr2002.04.9.3.42.c6188. View

Papps E, Ramsden I . Cultural safety in nursing: the New Zealand experience. Int J Qual Health Care. 1996; 8(5):491-7. DOI: 10.1093/intqhc/8.5.491. View

Williams R . Cultural safety--what does it mean for our work practice?. Aust N Z J Public Health. 1999; 23(2):213-4. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1999.tb01240.x. View

Dagsvold I, Mollersen S, Stordahl V . What can we talk about, in which language, in what way and with whom? Sami patients' experiences of language choice and cultural norms in mental health treatment. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2015; 74:26952. PMC: 4432021. DOI: 10.3402/ijch.v74.26952. View

Nystad T, Melhus M, Lund E . Sami speakers are less satisfied with general practitioners' services. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2008; 67(1):114-21. View

Dagsvold I, Mollersen S, Stordahl V . "You never know who are Sami or speak Sami" Clinicians' experiences with language-appropriate care to Sami-speaking patients in outpatient mental health clinics in Northern Norway. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2016; 75:32588. PMC: 5106464. DOI: 10.3402/ijch.v75.32588. View

Twinn S . An exploratory study examining the influence of translation on the validity and reliability of qualitative data in nursing research. J Adv Nurs. 1997; 26(2):418-23. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.1997026418.x. View

Browne A, Varcoe C, Smye V, Reimer-Kirkham S, Lynam M, Wong S . Cultural safety and the challenges of translating critically oriented knowledge in practice. Nurs Philos. 2009; 10(3):167-79. DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-769X.2009.00406.x. View

10.

Wood P, Schwass M . Cultural safety: a framework for changing attitudes. Nurs Prax N Z. 1993; 8(1):4-15. View

11.

Johnstone M, Kanitsaki O . Culture, language, and patient safety: Making the link. Int J Qual Health Care. 2006; 18(5):383-8. DOI: 10.1093/intqhc/mzl039. View

12.

Sorlie T, Nergard J . Treatment satisfaction and recovery in Saami and Norwegian patients following psychiatric hospital treatment: a comparative study. Transcult Psychiatry. 2005; 42(2):295-316. DOI: 10.1177/1363461505052669. View

13.

Blix B, Hamran T . "They take care of their own": healthcare professionals' constructions of Sami persons with dementia and their families' reluctance to seek and accept help through attributions to multiple contexts. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2017; 76(1):1328962. PMC: 5497550. DOI: 10.1080/22423982.2017.1328962. View

14.

Polaschek N . Cultural safety: a new concept in nursing people of different ethnicities. J Adv Nurs. 1998; 27(3):452-7. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00547.x. View

15.

Ferlie E, Shortell S . Improving the quality of health care in the United Kingdom and the United States: a framework for change. Milbank Q. 2001; 79(2):281-315. PMC: 2751188. DOI: 10.1111/1468-0009.00206. View

16.

Adelson N . The embodiment of inequity: health disparities in aboriginal Canada. Can J Public Health. 2005; 96 Suppl 2:S45-61. PMC: 6975716. View

17.

Graneheim U, LUNDMAN B . Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today. 2004; 24(2):105-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001. View

18.

De D, Richardson J . Cultural safety: an introduction. Paediatr Nurs. 2008; 20(2):39-44. DOI: 10.7748/paed2008.03.20.2.39.c6529. View