Der Name der Krankheit: Patienten mit fremden Sprachen im deutschen Krankenhaus

Abstract

Patients from foreign cultures suffer special stress, as their situation as foreigners fosters diseases and causes conflicts. They must live under ambivalent and contradicting circumstances. This situation is exacerbated by not being understood, by using metaphors and drawing on concepts of disease which differ from those commonly used within their new environment. The result is a therapeutic relationship that becomes speechless. Hospitals, which should organize not disrupt the recovery process, may yet cause that effect. The first part of the paper analyses the connection between migration and disease through two clinical stories. Often a foreign patient's explication of his/her own disease is misunderstood by nurses and physicians. The next part of the paper describes the vicious circle of cultural, organizational, and individual factors of disease as the attitudes of caregivers that intensify a patient's disease and the background of the uncertainty of many caregivers. The last part provides practical considerations on how nursing should react to this challenge.