Supporting cross-cultural communication and culturally competent care in the linguistically and culturally diverse hospital settings of UAE

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become a linguistically- and culturally-diverse society where the majority of health care staff is drawn from a range of non-Arabic speaking backgrounds. In hospitals, the resultant mix of language and cultural differences highlights the importance of the role of nurses in facilitating the quality of care as the primary healthcare workers communicating and interacting with both patients and colleagues. Given the dearth of research in this area in the unique context of UAE, this research sought to identify the kind of strategies in use to effectively communicate to provide culturally competent care (CCC). Data were collected from a total of 153 hospital staff from four private and six government hospitals across UAE. While nurses in both hospital types used a variety of strategies to support cross-cultural communication they saw a need for additional communication support and professional development.