Experience of Working with Foreign Patients

When it comes to the topic of microaggressions, which are verbal statements and actions performed without intent, there are three specific forms that fall under it: microinsults, microassults, and microinvalidations (Desmond Harris 2015). Microinsults are considered subtle phrases or terms used without being aware that they were said (Marshall 2018). Examples such as these include “homo” or “honey”. Microassults however are the opposite. These are phrases and actions intentionally said and performed, knowing it would be harmful towards the person being affected. The last category is microinvalidations, which is the devaluation or demoralizing situations of the affected (Hopper 2019).

An example of this includes the creations of the “All Lives Matter” movement which originally derived from the “Black Lives Matter” movement (Desmond Harris 2015).

When Jenny asked the patient to speak slower and clearer because she did not understand “Mexican”, this created a microinsult as a dilemma and made the patient experience a racial microaggression. Which lead him to not want to speak at all and leave upset.

Although Jenny did not mean to insult her patient, her reaction was not appropriate when it came to her referring the patient’s race as Mexican. In my past work experience, I have not noticed such microaggression situations until now at my new job.

I work as a financial representative at a health care facility which involves contacting patients and collecting charges. I have seen situations in which other representatives become frustrated when they can’t communicate clearly with the patients because they speak another language, mostly Spanish.

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Some have reacted the same way as Jenny, in which they speak inappropriately and choose not to call anymore patients they suspect might speak as clear as they do.

An important step the physical therapists should consider when it comes to preparing for cultural competence trainings is to come in having an open mindset. With a diverse community comes diverse ideas and beliefs. Therefore, those who interact with patients, the physical therapists in this case, need to be able to understand that their diverse community ideas and beliefs may not be the same or agree with their own. When putting these differences to the side, the focus on communication between a staff member and their patient increases quality of care and lessens patient dissatisfaction (A-State 2016).

In order to correctly meet the needs of patients from a culturally competent perspective, the physical therapy department would first need to enroll or educate their staff in the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care, also known as CLAS. Created by the Office of Minority back in 2013, CLAS was developed to reduce any dissimilarity, achieve in health equity, and improve quality (Ritter & Graham 2017).

With these standards, they will be able to properly treat and respond to an individual’s communication and needs along with acknowledging their cultural beliefs and health. I believe that the more CLAS is implemented workshops, trainings, or in academic curriculum such as medical or nursing schools, we improve that client-staff stigma creating stronger relationships within the community.