Teaching intercultural communication skills in healthcare to improve care for culturally and linguistically diverse patients

Abstract

Objective: To provide recommendations for adequately training healthcare providers in intercultural communication skills.

Discussion: We discuss three main recommendations concerning intercultural communication skills training. First, we give an overview of the fundamental skills in which healthcare providers should receive training, such as self-awareness and adaptability. Second, we briefly discuss how such training should be delivered, and focus on different language support methods, including those that work with different types of interpreters and digital tools. Third, we discuss how within-group differences can be taken into account to prevent stereotyping. To illustrate these recommendations, we provide certain examples of existing good practices and interventions.

Conclusion: In today's superdiverse societies, delivering culturally and linguistically sensitive healthcare tailored to the needs, values, and preferences of individual patients is a prerequisite for good quality healthcare communication. To achieve this goal, there is a need for clearer recommendations for affirmative action, guidelines, policy, and support for the topic of diversity sensitivity in healthcare, such as evidence-based interventions, than is currently the case. That is, structural changes on a system level are urgently needed to support healthcare providers to implement diversity sensitivity in their daily clinical work.

Keywords: Cultural competency; Diversity; Intercultural communication; Language support; Stereotyping; Training.