Culturally Competent Care for Taiwanese Temporary Residents

Abstract

This article describes a problem relevant to home health care, that of treating foreign nationals. The problems of providing culturally competent care for Taiwanese nationals stimulated the authors to review the literature and to conduct unstructured interviews with Taiwanese temporary residents of the United States in an effort to generate specific suggestions for improving the negotiation of the American health care system for these people. The first author, herself a member of the population of interest, conducted interviews in Chinese with members of her acquaintance. Findings were that, while language was often problematic, of more concern was the lack of understanding about Taiwanese culture that led health care providers to make inappropriate suggestions to their patients. Suggestions are offered for how home health care providers can decrease the confusion experienced by the Taiwanese patient.