Being a Non-Swedish Physician in Sweden: A Comparison of the Views on Work Related Communication of Non-Swedish Physicians and Swedish Health Care Personnel

Nataliya Berbyuk; Jens Allwood; Charlotte Edebäck

doi:10.36923/jicc.v5i1.398

Open Access Article Intercultural Communication

Nataliya Berbyuk ⁽¹⁾ , Jens Allwood ⁽²⁾ , Charlotte Edebäck ⁽³⁾

1. Department of Linguistics, Göteborg University, Sweden

2. Department of Linguistics Göteborg University, Sweden

3. Department of Linguistics Göteborg University, Sweden

https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v5i1.398

Issue
Vol. 5 No. 1 (2005)

Submitted
2003 August 13

Published
2005 March 15

Keywords:

Communication, culture, non-Swedish physicians, Swedish health care personnel, language proficiency, misunderstanding, gender

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Abstract

Sweden is rapidly changing from being a monocultural to a multicultural society. The effects of this process can also be seen in health care which has, up till now, been one of the most ethnically and gender segregated working places, compared to the industrial sector. Increasing multiculturality places the issue of intercultural communication on top of the agenda for Swedish society in general and for the health care sector in particular.

This article is based on the results of two interrelated questionnaires, one directed at non-Swedish physicians, a relatively new but rapidly growing group in Swedish heath care, and one directed at Swedish health care personnel, a traditionally ethnically homogeneous group. The respondents’ answers have been summarised and compared in order to get a comprehensive picture of intercultural communication in Swedish health care.

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References

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Authors

Nataliya Berbyuk

natasha@ling.gu.se (Primary Contact)

Jens Allwood

Charlotte Edebäck

Author Biographies

Nataliya Berbyuk

Nataliya Berbyuk is a PhD student at the Department of Linguistics and SSKKII at Göteborg University. Her research interests include intercultural communication, multimodal communication, pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and gender studies. Currently she is involved in a multidisciplinary research project about intercultural communication in the Swedish health care system.

Jens Allwood

Jens Allwood is since 1986 professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics at Göteborg University. He is also chairman of the board of the Immigrant Institute, an NGO umbrella organization for immigrants in Sweden and he is director of the interdisciplinary cognitive science center SSKKII at Göteborg university. His research primarily includes work in semantics and pragmatics. He is investigating spoken language interaction from several perspectives, eg corpus linguistics, computer modelling of dialog, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics as well as intercultural communication. Presently he is heading projects concerned with the semantics of spoken language phenomena, multimodal communication, cultural variation in communication and the influence of social activity on spoken language.

Charlotte Edebäck

Charlotte Edebäck is a research assistant at SSKKII, Göteborg University. She works within projects related to communication and multiculturality such as "Communication and Interaction in Multicultural Health Care: Non-Swedish Physicians in Sweden," and "European Intercultural Workplace."

Berbyuk, N., Allwood, J., & Edebäck , C. (2005). Being a Non-Swedish Physician in Sweden: A Comparison of the Views on Work Related Communication of Non-Swedish Physicians and Swedish Health Care Personnel. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 5(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v5i1.398

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