What do Pregnant Mexican-origin women expect from their healthcare providers?

Baxley, Susan M.

Monday, 18 November 2013: 2:25 PM

Susan M. Baxley, PhD, RN
College of Nursing, University of Texas Arlington, Arlington, TX
Kristina Ibitayo, PhD, RN
College of Nursing, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX

Learning Objective 1: Understand the pregnant Mexican origin women’s expectations of trust and communication with their health care providers.

Learning Objective 2: Explore how the words of these women can improve healthcare outcomes.

Hispanics represent the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States, so it is important to understand how Latina women view the health care system and their providers. Research done on disparities of care has mostly been conducted on the technical aspects of care, but little is known about the Latina women’s perception of their experiences. Communication and trust are important aspects of prenatal care and influence how the women perceive they are treated.

A qualitative, descriptive inquiry explored 13 Mexican origin women’s (first and second-generation) perception of trust and communication with their health care providers. The women ranged from age 19-36 years, and all but two were born in Mexico. Most of the women were married (10) or living with the baby’s father (1), and all but two women finished high school and two had some college. They mostly spoke Spanish at home or a mix of English/Spanish.

The women were interviewed using open-ended questions based on the framework and literature. Eleven of the interviews were conduction in Spanish and two were in English. The themes that offer a summary of the women’s perception of what they want from their healthcare providers included: seen as a person; personalized, direct information; friendly and caring; and bilingual.

The themes extracted from the interviews shows the importance that the women put on understanding what was happening to them (Tandon, Parillo, & Keefer, 2005). These women want healthcare providers to be responsive to their culture and language. The interviews support that the women want respect, caring, personalization and understanding.

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