|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Language forms barrier between patients, doctors
![[Picture]](06_1_i.gif)
With the UA less than an hour from American Indian reservations and the Mexican border, communication barriers between doctors and their patients can lead to inaccurate diagnoses and treatment, university professors say. "People tend to be naive about other cultures," said Kathryn Bayles, a University of Arizona speech and hearing sciences professor. "It's true in the medical world too that people tend to attribute behavior to their own cultures." Language and cultural barriers, such as eye contact with some American Indians, can mar doctor-patient discourse. Problems can also arise if patients do not completely understand technical medical terminology. "It's a problem that goes beyond a health condition," said Eva Moya, senior project coordinator for the UA Rural Health Office. "What it takes is cultural competency among health care providers. It really involves a set of values that makes to deliver the best health care, which requires doctors and nurses to not only speak the (ethnic) language, but have a knowledge of the people themselves, which only comes through long term exposure." Crossing cultural boundaries takes empathy and an ability to respect ethnic differences, she said. "I have been astonished at how differently people view the world, how greatly their value systems differ and how often that can lead to misdiagnosis," Bayles said. Bayles, the associate director of the UA's National Center for Neuro-genic Communication, helped organize a conference focusing on doctor-patient cultural differences today and tomorrow at the Marriott University Park Hotel, 880 E. Second St. The center is one of five in the United States that is congressionally man-dated and paid for by the National Institutes of Health. Sponsors of the conference titled "Cultural Competence in Health Care: Improving Diagnosis, Management and Communication" include the UA Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. Conference funding is provided by grants from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Office for Research in Minority Health. Thomas Kennedy can be reached via e-mail at Thomas.Kennedy@wildcat.arizona.edu.
|
