The family in the context of hospital care: a perspective from cultural competence

Abstract

We try to show the increasing role of family relatives during hospitalization and nursing initiatives for caring from a cultural competence perspective. In a health environment, it is considered as the ability of acting and obtaining positive clinical results during cross culture encounters. This paper not only focuses in diversity as a result of foreign population in Spain, even though 11.3 % of population registered in Spain is foreign, and Alicante is the province with highest proportion (23.37 %). The case of Hospital General Universitario de Alicante is presented as a transferable experience to other hospitals and internal indicators demonstrate the enormous number of personal interrelations that take place between the caring team and family relatives. Conclusions are reached and recommendations are proposed in order to obtain respect towards beliefs and values in patients and their family relatives. Together with other results, the discovery of a deep desire among professionals for acquiring cultural competence is relevant and so are figures such as percentage of complaint forms filled in and signed by family relatives.

Keywords

• Competencia cultural
• Enfermería
• Extranjeros
• Familia