Sjuksköterskors upplevelser av möten med patienter från andra kulturer och deras närstående
en intervjustudie om smärta
Background: Many Swedish inhabitants origin from different countries with different cultures that may show pain in other ways than Swedes. The Swedish law stress that nursing care should be done individually according to the patient's capabilities and needs. Aim and Method: The aim of this study was to describe nurses´ experiences of encounters with patients from other cultures with pain, and also their next of kin. Qualitative interviews were carried out with seven nurses. The interviews were analysed with the starting point in Giger and Davidhizars Transcultural Assessment Model and the six phenomena: communication, space, social organisation, time, environmental control and biological diversity. Result: The result shows that the majority of the nurses were of the opinion that patients from other cultures express pain differently verbally and non-verbally. The next of kin was important for the patient. Fear, unknowledge and unfamiliarity sometimes made the nurses react in a way they did not want to. All phenomena, except biological diversity, were included in the result. Conclusion: Better knowledge about other cultures and patients' view of illness and disease would make it easier for the nurse to understand the patient and to encounter differences in pain expression.