Patient Education and Counseling
Volume 78, Issue 2 , Pages 160-165 , February 2010

Experiences of Kurdish war-wounded refugees in communication with Swedish authorities through interpreter

  • Nabi Fatahi

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, Sweden
    • Unit of Primary Health Care, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, Sweden
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author at: Department of Radiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, The Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 413 45 Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel.: +46 313388570/+46 704383133 (Mobile).
    • ,
  • Lena Nordholm

      Affiliations

    • Department of Health Sciences, Borås University College, Sweden
    • ,
  • Bengt Mattsson

      Affiliations

    • Unit of Primary Health Care, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, Sweden
    • ,
  • Mikael Hellström

      Affiliations

    • Department of Radiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and The Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University, Sweden

Received 20 March 2008 ,Revised 6 March 2009 ,Accepted 10 March 2009.

References 

  1. Wallin AM, Ahlström G. Cross-cultural interview studies using interpreters: systematic literature review. J Adv Nurs. 2006;55:723–735
  2. Rosen J, Spatz ES, Gaaserud AMJ, Abramovitch H, Weinreb B, Wenger NS, et al. A new approach to developing cross-cultural communication skills. Med Teach. 2004;26:101–105
  3. Gadon M, Balch GI, Jacobs EA. Caring for patients with limited English proficiency: the perspectives of small group practitioners. J Gen Intern Med. 2007;22:341–346
  4. Greenhalgh T, Voisey C, Robb N. Interpreted consultations as ‘business as usual’? An analysis of organisational routines in general practices. Sociol Health Illn. 2007;29:931–954
  5. Robertson E, Iglesias E, Johansson SE, Sundquist J. Migration status and limiting long-standing illness: a longitudinal study of women of childbearing age in Sweden. Eur J Public Health. 2003;13:99–104
  6. Monroe AD, Shirazian T. Challenging linguistic barriers to health care: students as medical interpreters. Acad Med. 2004;79:118–122
  7. Grow RW, Sztajnkrycer MD, Moore BR. Language barriers as a reported cause of prehospital care delay in Minnesota. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2008;12:76–79
  8. Schyve PM. Language differences as a barrier to quality and safety in health care: the Joint Commission perspective. J Gen Intern Med. 2007;22:360–361
  9. Roberts GW, Irvine FE, Jones PR, Spencer LH, Baker CR, Williams C. Language awareness in the bilingual healthcare setting: a national survey. Int J Nurs Stud. 2007;44:1177–1186
  10. Schouten BC, Meeuwesen L. Cultural differences in medical communication: a review of the literature. Patient Educ Couns. 2006;64:21–34
  11. Van-Wieringen JC, Harmsen JA, Bruijnzeels MA. Intercultural communication in general practice. Eur J Public Health. 2002;12:63–68
  12. Hermansson AC, Timpka T, Thyberg M. The mental health of war-wounded refugees: an 8-year follow-up. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2002;190:374–380
  13. Povlsen L, Olsen B, Ladelund S. Educating families from ethnic minorities in type 1 diabetes—experiences from a Danish intervention study. Patient Educ Couns. 2005;59:164–170
  14. Fatahi N, Mattsson B, Hasanpoor J, Skott C. Interpreters’ experiences of general practitioner-patient encounters. Scand J Prim Health Care. 2005;23:159–163
  15. Schlemmer A, Mash B. The effects of a language barrier in a South African district hospital. S Afr Med J. 2006;9:1084–1087
  16. Surbone A. Cultural aspects of communication in cancer care. Recent Results Cancer Res. 2008;16:235–240
  17. Mattingly C . The concept of therapeutic “emplotment”. Soc Sci Med. 1994;6:811–822
  18. Dyck I. The immigrant client: issues in developing culturally sensitive practice. Can J Occup Ther. 1989;56:248–254
  19. SCB. Statistisk årsbok för Sverige (Statistical Year Book, Sweden). Stockholm: Elanders Novum AB; 2006.
  20. Niska H. Community interpreting in Sweden. Stockholm University, Institute for Interpretation and Translation; 2004;
  21. Hellners T, Malmqvist B. Förvaltningslagen med kommentarer (Administration's law with comments). Stockholm: Norstedts juridik; 2003;
  22. Jacobs B, Kroll L, Green J, David TJ. The hazards of using a child as an interpreter. J R Soc Med. 1995;88:474–475
  23. Fatahi N, Hellström M, Skott C, Mattsson B. General practitioners’ views on consultations with interpreters: a triad situation with complex issues. Scand J Prim Health Care. 2008;26:40–45
  24. Mast MS. On the importance of nonverbal communication in the physician–patient interaction. Patient Educ Couns. 2007;67:315–318
  25. Carroll J, Epstein R, Fiscella K, Gipson T, Volpe E, Pascal J-P. Caring for Somali women: implications for clinician–patient communication. Patient Educ Couns. 2007;66:337–345
  26. Oquendo MA. Psychiatric evaluation and psychotherapy in the patient's second language. Psychiatric Serv. 1996;47:614–618
  27. Alinia M. Spaces of diasporas: Kurdish identities, experiences of otherness and politics of belonging. Academic Thesis. Department of Sociology, Göteborg University; 2004.
  28. Hasanpoor J. A study of European, Persian and Arabic loans in standard Sorani. Academic Thesis. Department of Asian and African Languages, Uppsala University; 1999.
  29. Berelson B. Content analysis in communication research. Glencoe. Illinois: The Free Press; 1952;
  30. Graneheim UH, Lundman B. Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Educ Today. 2004;24:105–112
  31. Hermansson A-C. War-wounded refugees: a prospective study of well-being and social integration. Academic Thesis. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University; 1996.
  32. Calbucura J. Invandrare med funktionshinder och deras möte med det svenska socialpolitiska systemet. (Disabled immigrants and the Swedish social political system). Department of Social Sciences, Uppsala University; 2000;
  33. Hunt LM, de Voogd KB. Are good intentions good enough? Informed consent without trained interpreters. J Gen Intern Med. 2007;22:598–605
  34. Capron AM. Where is the sure interpreter?. Hastings Cent Rep. 1992;4:26–27
  35. Launer J. Taking medical histories through interpreters: Practice in a Nigerian outpatient department. Brit Med J. 1978;2:934–935
  36. Carol EM. Interpreting information: health care communication among family nurse practitioners, interpreters and Cambodian refugee patients. San Francisco: University of California; 1991;
  37. Green AR, Ngo-Metzger Q, Legedza AT, Massagli MP, Phillips RS, Iezzoni LI. Interpreter services, language concordance, and health care quality. Experiences of Asian Americans with limited English proficiency. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20:1050–1056
  38. Robb N, Greenhalgh T. “You have to cover up the words of the doctor”: the mediation of trust in interpreted consultations in primary care. J Health Organ Manage. 2006;20:434–455
  39. Bhatia R, Wallance P. Experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in general practice: a qualitative study. Brit Med J Fam Pract. 2007;21:8–48
  40. Pesquera M, Yoder L, Lynk M. Improving cross-cultural awareness and skills to reduce health disparities in cancer. Medsurg Nurs. 2008;17:114–120
  41. Bukhari SS, Pardhan A, Kkan AS, Ahmed A, Choudry FJ, Pardhan K, et al. Superstitions regarding health problems in different ethnic groups in Karachi. J Pak Med Assoc. 2002;52:383–387
  42. Taloyan M, Johansson LM, Johansson SE, Sundquist J, Koctürk TO. Poor self-reported health and sleeping difficulties among Kurdish immigrant men in Sweden. Transcult Psychiatry. 2006;43:445–461
  43. Taloyan M, Sundquist J, Al-Windi A. The impact of ethnicity and self-reported health on psychological well-being: a comparative study of Kurdish-born and Swedish-born people. Nord J Psychiatry. 2008;62:392–398
  44. Movahedi S. Metalinguistic analysis of therapeutic discourse: flight into a second language when the analyst and the analysand are multilingual. J. Am Psychoanal Assoc. 1996;44:837–862
  45. Hsieh E. Conflicts in how interpreters manage their roles in provider–patient interactions. Soc Sci Med. 2006;62:721–730

PII: S0738-3991(09)00130-X

doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2009.03.010

Patient Education and Counseling
Volume 78, Issue 2 , Pages 160-165 , February 2010

Article Tools