Dementia, Communication and Culture Implications of linguistic and cultural diversity in intercultural dementia care

Ingrid Hanssen

doi:10.36923/jicc.v15i3.701

Article Intercultural Communication

Ingrid Hanssen ⁽¹⁾

(1) Lovisenberg diakonale høgskole - Norway , Norway

https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v15i3.701

Issue
Vol. 15 No. 3 (2015)

Submitted
April 19, 2014

Published
November 10, 2015

Keywords:

culture, dementia, intercultural communication, patient-nurse relationship

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Abstract

Several dementia subtypes affect either some aspect of speech fluency and/or comprehension. Linguistic diversity affects healthcare delivery, not the least in the field of dementia care. In-depth interviewing were conducted with a total of 26 family members of patients with dementia and 35 nurses experienced in dementia care in six geriatric facilities (one in Oslo, Norway, one in a Sami town in northern Norway, and four in Tshwane, South Africa). In all these facilities many nurses had different cultural and linguistic backgrounds than their patients. Language difficulties constituted a central communicative challenge in intercultural dementia care as patients often lose their knowledge of the majority language and the nurses’ knowledge of the patient’s language and culture may be limited or non-existent.

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Authors

Ingrid Hanssen

Lovisenberg diakonale høgskole - Norway

(Primary Contact)

Author Biography

Ingrid Hanssen, Lovisenberg diakonale høgskole - Norway

Ingrid Hanssen is a nurse with intercultural work experience from both Norway and the United Arab Emirates. She is a Master of Nursing Science and Dr; Politic sciences from the University of Oslo. Her doctoral dissertation was “Facing Differentness; An empirical Inquiry into ethical challenges in intercultural nursing” (2002), later published by VDM Verlag, Dr Müller, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010). She is a Professor at Lovisenberg diakonale høgskole (Lovisenberg Deaconal University College), Oslo, Norway.

Hanssen, I. (2015). Dementia, Communication and Culture Implications of linguistic and cultural diversity in intercultural dementia care. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 15(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v15i3.701

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