| Learning Objective #1: Know the levels of nurse-patient interaction among Filipino-Canadians within the Canadian multicultural context | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Understand the Filipino-Canadians' languages of words, gaze, touch, and food in order to facilitate an optimal nurse-patient relationship |
Objective: In this study, we uncover the culturally-embedded values that implicitly guide Filipino-Canadian patients’ interactions with Canadian nurses and are integral to the developing patient-nurse relationship.
Design & Methods: A focused ethnography was conducted, using a purposive sample of 23 Filipino-Canadians who received care in Canadian hospitals. Data consisted of observations, field notes, interviews, and personal diary.
Findings: The personalistic worldview of Filipinos, fostering interactions of warmth, intimacy, security of kinship, and friendship was evident. The family remained the basic unit of social organization among Filipino-Canadians, and served as the major source of support, especially during illness, birth or death. The “one of us” (hindi ibang tao) and “not one of us” (ibang tao) delineation emerged distinctly and determined the patients’ prerogative of who performed tasks or received information considered “personal” and “private.” The urgency of the patients’ conditions, the intimacy required for most nursing procedures and short hospitalizations, meant that patients must interact without progressing through the “not one of us” levels of formality (pakikitungo), adjusting (pakikibagay), and acceptance (pakikisama). Rather, using their languages of words, gaze, touch, and food, they immediately moved to “one of us” levels of mutual comfort (pakikipagpalagayang-loob) and/or oneness (pakikiisa). The patients’ willingness to trust, and to share their worldview, kapwa (the Filipinos’ core value embodied in how they relate with other humans their “beings” (pakikipagkapwa tao))—allowed nurses to move through these levels of interaction with the patients and become “one of us.” Also revealed was the distinction that “one of us” were supposed to “watch over” them (bantay), whereas “not one of us” were expected to “care for” them (alaga). Conclusions: Communication is a key factor in the nurse-patient interaction. Nurses and other health professionals must understand the Filipino-Canadians’ languages of words, gaze, touch, and food to facilitate an optimal nurse-patient relationship.
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