Caring for older culturally and linguistically diverse patients with Cancer: Healthcare Providers' perceived barriers to communication

[Communication with a culturally and linguistically diverse population from Primary Care]

The care of a culturally and linguistically diverse population is a challenge in primary health care due to language barriers and cultural differences. For this reason, good communication and cultural competence of health personnel is key within medical consultation. Thus, during consultations with this group of people, it is the doctor's duty to identify the patient's culture, their perception of the concept of health, in what way and to what extent they want to be informed, and the role they want to assign to the members of their family before the treatment process begins. For this reason, there are interventions that seek to optimize the care provided to these patients and mitigate the cultural barrier, including the use of multimodal digital tools, the use of translators or interpreters, and training of health personnel in communication and intercultural skills.

'Hearing silences': Exploring culturally safe transitional care: A qualitative study among Turkish-speaking migrant frail older adults

AIMS

This study aimed to investigate the experiences and transitional care needs of Turkish frail older adults living in the UK and determine how this information can be utilized to improve the provision of culturally sensitive care during the transitional period.

DESIGN

Qualitative descriptive research with semi-structured individual interviews.

METHODS

"The 'Silences' Framework guided the research design, from conceptualizing the research question to structuring the report of final outputs. For this study, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen older adults living with frailty and five family caregivers between January and May of 2023 in the United Kingdom.

RESULTS

Major themes that were identified included: (i) information and communication, (ii) care and support, (iii) the role of culture and (iv) trust and satisfaction. Further analysis, through discussion and immersion in the data, revealed that care transition periods were presented alongside three phases of transitional care: pre-transition (during hospitalization), early-transition (the period between discharge and the 7th day after discharge) and late transition (the period between the 8th day and 12th month after discharge).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study revealed that the communication and informational needs of frail older individuals change during the transition period. While Turkish older adults and family caregivers expressed satisfaction with healthcare services in the UK, many struggled due to a lack of knowledge on how to access them.

IMPACT

The support of family caregivers is a crucial component in facilitating transitional care for frail older patients, as they help in accessing healthcare services and using technological devices or platforms. It should be noted that family caregivers often hold the same level of authority as their elderly Turkish counterparts.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

Factors Impacting on Patient-Centered Communication Skills and Their Opportunities to Be Involved in Decision-making From the Perspective of Patients With Cancer, Informal Caregivers, and/or Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Active participation of cancer patients and their caregivers in decision-making, along with high-quality communication, is crucial in patient-centered cancer management. Although numerous factors affecting patients' communication and decision-making involvement have been identified, it is still unclear which ones are the most prevalent and critical.

OBJECTIVE

To identify factors that contribute to high-quality patient-centered communication and decision-making participation from the perspectives of cancer patients, informal caregivers, and/or healthcare professionals.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted, using 9 databases to retrieve primary research articles published from 2010 to February 17, 2023, updated on December 13, 2023. Methodological quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (version 18). The socioecological model of communication was utilized as analytical framework for summarizing the results.

RESULTS

Fifty-two studies were included. The most frequently reported factors were predominantly articulated at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. Although the patients' lack of knowledge and limited language proficiency were the frequent patient-level barriers, the perceived lack of knowledge and lack of training of professionals were the crucial and current professional-level barriers, as reported in studies published in 2016 onward. To circumvent these factors, it is critical to enhance professionals' knowledge, communication skills, and patient relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Recognizing barriers and facilitators could help in the development of strategies to overcome these barriers and enhance patient participation in clinical communication.

IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE

The findings could guide the development of programs to enhance patient-professional communication skills. Further cross-cultural studies are needed to understand culture's impact on communication effectiveness and decision-making participation.

Cancer treatment-related decision-making among culturally and linguistically diverse older adults with cancer: A scoping review by the International Society of Geriatric Oncology Nursing and Allied Health Interest Group

INTRODUCTION

Countries with large economies are observing a growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) older adults, many of whom will be affected by cancer. Little is known about the experiences and factors that influence cancer treatment decision-making in this population. The purposes of this scoping review are: (1) to summarize the published literature on cancer treatment-related decision-making with this population; and (2) to identify potential differences in how cancer treatment decisions are made compared to non-CALD older adults with cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a scoping review following Arksey and O'Malley and Levac methods, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Scoping Review Guidelines. We conducted a comprehensive multidatabase search, screening 1,139 titles/abstracts. Following data abstraction, we analyzed the data using tabular and narrative summary.

RESULTS

We extracted data from six studies that met the inclusion criteria: four quantitative and two qualitative; five from the United States and one from Canada. Three themes were identified: (1) barriers to decision-making, (2) the influence of family and friends on decisionmaking, and (3) differences in uptake and types of treatment received between CALD and non-CALD older adults.

DISCUSSION

This comprehensive review of treatment decision-making among CALD older adults with cancer highlights the paucity of research in this area. The findings are limited to North American populations and may not represent experiences in other regions of the world. Future research should focus on studying their treatment-related decision-making experiences to improve the quality of care for this vulnerable population.

Palliative and End-of-Life Care Access for Immigrants Living in High-income Countries: A Scoping Review

This scoping review aimed to explore what is known about palliative and End-of-Life (EOL) care access by immigrants with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background living in high-income Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. CaLD immigrants have low utilization of palliative care services with patients' family members taking up the role of caring, leading to immigrants not fully benefiting from the specialized services that are offered to alleviate suffering and promote quality of life. While there is some research in this area mainly in Europe, it cannot be said about all high-income OECD countries. Achieving person-centered care in high-income countries, requires identifying and addressing barriers to care access, especially by immigrants with CaLD background. Five-stage methodological framework by Arksey and O'Malley was used to undertake the review. Immigrants in OECD countries experience challenges in accessing palliative and EOL care services. The review also identified limited literature on the subject and establishes need for more research on the subject.