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Cultural Competence and the Role of the Patient’s Mother Tongue: An Exploratory Study of Health Professionals’ Perceptions

The role of the patient’s mother tongue in clinical communication is of vital importance and yet it is not always dealt with adequately by healthcare professionals and healthcare systems. Cultural competence should deal with and redress asymmetries in doctor–patient communication, including those having an impact on the patient’s mother tongue. The aim of this study was to answer a research question: what are the health professionals’ perceptions of the importance and role of the patients’ mother tongue in diglossic situations? To answer our research question, we carried out two focus groups, one with doctors and another with nurses working in public hospitals in the Valencian Community (Spain) where two languages share officiality, Catalan and Spanish. Yet, Catalan is a right and Spanish a duty. The results showed that perceptions of professionals in relation to the importance of the patient’s mother tongue in situations in which two official languages coexist in an asymmetric relationship vary a great deal and seem to form a continuum of positive and negative judgements. Different values were represented in the participants’ perceptions, ranging from respect for and full alignment with the patient’s perspective to negative perceptions. More qualitative and quantitative research on health professionals’ attitudes and values is needed to understand the role of the patient’s mother tongue in clinical communication. Educational and institutional efforts are also needed to redress the linguistic and cultural asymmetries that have a negative impact on patients in terms of inequality, inefficiency, and even exclusion.