Item Details

‘I think Danish patients would feel the same’: Counter-discourses emerging in the Danish health sector

Issue: Vol 8 No. 3 (2011)

Journal: Communication & Medicine

Subject Areas: Healthcare Communication Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/cam.v8i3.223

Abstract:

This article argues that the discourse of culture and ethnicity that has so far been found to dominate health sector communication about ethnic minority patients is being challenged by voices indicating alternative ways of talking about the cultural meeting. This assumption is corroborated by data from interviews with nurses, who construct themselves discursively as members of a nursing profession divided between institutional concerns and concerns about the individual needs of patients. In a ward with many ethnic minority patients these concerns will invariably invite reflections on the nature and significance of culture, and to what extent cultural difference is a meaningful concept in nursing practice, and our results have pointed to a counter-discourse emerging in part of the Danish health sector. The analysis presented here is based on data from a project in which we explore how health professionals and ethnic minority patients talk about culture in a specific Danish hospital ward and how this may have implications for staff-patient relationships. Our theoretical and methodological approach is mainly Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 1992 [1999]; van Dijk 2008; Reisigl & Wodak 2001).

Author: Inger Lassen, Jeanne Strunck

View Original Web Page

References :

Barth, F. (1969). Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Bonnett, A. (2000). Anti-racism. London and New York: Routledge.
Bowser, B. P. (1995). Racism and Antiracism in World Perspective. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Breinholdt, B. (2007). Sundhedsprofessionelle i en multikulturel verden. (Health professionals in a multi-cultural world). The Danish Health Board. Copenhagen: Scanprint.
Candlin, S. (2006). Constructing knowledge: Understanding and meaning between patients and nurses. In M. Gotti and F. Salager-Keyer (eds) Advances in Medical Discourse Analysis: Oral and Written Contexts 65–86. Bern: Peter Lang.
Catinét Research (2005). Undersøgelse om patienter med indvandrerbaggrund. Sygeplejersken. (A survey carried out jointly by the Danish Journal of Nursing and the research institute Catinét). http://www2.dsr.dk/dsr/upload/2/0/95/Rapport_patienter_med_indvandrerbaggrund_22905.pdf
Fairclough, N. (1992) [1999]. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Essed. P. (2000). Beyond antiracism: Diversity, multi-identifications and sketchy images of new societies. In M. Reisigl and R. Wodak, R. (eds) The Semiotics of Racism: Approaches in Critical Discourse Analysis 41–60. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.
Hoffmann, M. (2007). Diskursen om sundhed og etniske minoriteter. En analyse af tre rapporter fra Sundhedsstyrelsen. Unpublished MA thesis. Aalborg University, Denmark.
Kushnick, L. (1995). Racism and antiracism in Western Europe. In B. Bowser (ed.) Racism and Antiracism in World Perspective 181–202. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Lentin, A. (2004). Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe. London: Pluto Press.
Martin, J. and Rose, D. (2003). Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. London: Continuum.
Musschenga, A. W. (2002). The influence of culture on health and quality of life. In A. Gimmler, C. Lenk and G. Aumüller (eds) Health and Quality of Life: Philosophical, Medical and Cultural Aspects 173–186. Münster, Hamburg and London: LIT Verlag.
Nielsen, A. S. (2005). Smertelige erfaringer. Unpublished Doctoral thesis. Department of Public Health, Copenhagen University, Denmark.
Nielsen, B. (2006). Patienter med minoritetsetnisk baggrund I det danske sundhedsvæsen. En fænomenologisk undersøgelse af sygeplejerskers oplevelse af mødet med minoritetsetniske patienter på en dansk hospitalsafdeling. Unpublished MA thesis. Institut for Folkesundhed, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark.
Pickering, M. (2001). Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation. New York: Palgrave.
Reisigl, M. and Wodak, R. (2000). The Semiotics of Racism: Approaches in Critical Discourse Analysis. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.
Reisigl, M. and Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge.
Roberts, C. and Sarangi, S. (1995). But are they one of us? Managing and evaluating identities in work-related contexts. Multilinguia 14 (4): 363–390.
Schierup, C.-U. (1993). På kulturens slagmark. Mindretal og størretal taler om Danmark. Odense: Southern Danish University Press.
Schneider, D. (2004). The Psychology of Stereotyping. New York: The Guilford Press.
Troelsen, M. (2006). Indvandrere skaber problemer. Sygeplejersken (2): 27. January. Dansk Sygeplejeråd (2): 16–39.
van Dijk, T. (2008). Discourse and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
van Dijk, T., Ring-Toomey, S., Smitherman, G. and Troutman, D. (1997). Discourse, ethnicity, culture and racism. In T. van Dijk (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction 144–180. London: Sage.
Wengeler, M. (1997) Argumentation im Einwanderungsdiskurs: Ein Vergleich der Zeit-räume 1970–1973 und 1980–1983. In M. Jung, M. Wengeler and K. Böke (eds) Die Sprache des Migrationsdiskurses: Das Reden über Ausländer in Medien, Politik und Alltag 121–149. Stuttgart: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Wodak, R. (2008) The contribution of critical linguistics to the analysis of discriminatory prejudices and stereotypes in the language of politics. In R. Wodak and V. Koller Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere 291–316. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.