Conceptualizing cross-cultural care encounters
The analysis showed that participants equated ‘culture’
with country of origin rather than taking a broader definition
of culture. All the cross-cultural care encounters
described by participants were with patients or relatives
from an immigrant background. Even participants who
were of immigrant origin described encounters with
patients/relatives from an immigrant background as
opposed to a Swedish one. Although one immigrant
participant acknowledged that she frequently encountered
Swedish patients who were from a different culture to her
own, she did not consider these to be cross-cultural care
encounters.
I have immigrant background and live in Sweden so I
meet patients from other cultures every day. I’m not
Swedish and we don’t belong to the same culture, but
I wouldn’t say that these are cross-cultural care
encounters. (Participant 2, Kurdish background)