The process of building relationships between foreign patients and nurses in Japan / 国際保健医療

ABSTRACT

 The purpose of this inductive study was to clarify the process of building relationships between foreign patients, who are residents in Japan, with diverse cultural backgrounds and nurses who have cared for hospitalized foreign patients within the past year. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews of eleven Japanese nurses. Analysis of data used the grounded theory methodology. <br> The results of the analysis revealed the following core components of the relationship building process [Intention to provide appropriate nursing care for foreign patients], [Intention to understand foreign patients’ diverse backgrounds from the perspective of one’s own culture], [Indecision regarding relationships with foreign patients], and [Compromises between nurses and foreign patients]. Furthermore, 25 categories and 110 subcategories of these components were identified.<br> The most important feature of the process of building relationships between foreign patients and nurses was that nurses requested that foreign patients have the same role as Japanese patients<br> Subsequently, the nurses became aware of the differences between their own culture and foreign patients’ diverse cultural backgrounds. Consequently, the nurses had made progress in increasing their awareness of cultural differences.<br> The present results suggest the importance of facilitating Japanese nurses’ recognition of the existence of cultural difference, and improving the process of compromising with accepted cultural difference.