Profesjonsidentitet i et flerkulturelt helsevesen. Paradokser, grenser og ambivalens.
Journal article, Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/10642/4333Utgivelsesdato
2016Metadata
Vis full innførselOriginalversjon
FLEKS - Scandinavian Journal of Intercultural Theory and practice 2016, 3(1) http://doi.org/10.7577/fleks.1678Sammendrag
Healthcare professionals are trained to “do good”. Their role is to fulfil the welfare state’s
objective of curing or alleviating health problems among the population. The training of
healthcare professionals is oriented towards the acquisition of comprehensive knowledge
and is designed to make them authorities on the management of suffering. Traditionally the
healthcare professions have adhered to strict ethical standards, where- among other things-
concepts of equality and solidarity are intended to protect weak and marginalized groups.
These ethical standards are also reflected in the official descriptions of their own roles
promulgated by the health professions. An increasingly multicultural population has
displayed demographic differences in disease incidence as well in cultural attitudes about
health, disease and treatment. Service users from minority backgrounds are often
categorized as problematic in the sense that they are not perceived as falling into a
recognizable user category. These differences seem to create asymmetry in the professional
field, due to lack of sufficient experience by health personnel or a lack of comprehensive
knowledge about the appropriate handling of the group. This may create ambivalence in the
professional practice of health personnel. I argue
that health personell need to strengthen
their multicultural competence to meet the healthcare needs of immigrant populations. The
aim of the article is to contribute to a more thorough understanding
of why healthcare
professionals identity
are challenged
when they
interact with a multicultural
population.
The
article's method
is based on discourse analytical persepectives
through analyses of 31 text
examples from health personell who strengthen their multicultural competence through
education