Changing Home: Experiences of the Indigenous when Receiving Care in Hospital.
Juan Guillermo Rojas, Raquel Herrero
PMID 33306898WHAT IT FOUND
Indigenous participants described hospital care as a clash of travel, documents, appointments, unfamiliar spaces, treatments, and communication.
They often used traditional medicine first, then came when severe, and judged staff by kindness and language access.
Key findings
01Hospital care was delayed or made harder by travel, unavailable appointments, missing identity documents, and staff communication that participants experienced as good or bad.
02Participants usually sought a traditional medicine man first and went to the hospital when the problem seemed beyond that care or became very severe.
03Participants found hospital toilets and showers unfamiliar, and they feared medical equipment they did not understand.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included 12 participants from one Emberá subgroup in one low-complexity hospital, so it cannot describe all Indigenous peoples or all Colombian settings. Participants included patients, companions, and key informants, and the findings are subjective experiences rather than measured clinical outcomes. Communication relied on a native translator, so some meanings may have been narrowed or missed. The paper does not test whether cultural adjustments, interpreters, or staff training change care results.
Declared interests
Funded by the Committee for the Development of Research at Universidad de Antioquia; no author conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that a cultural adaptation programme improves health outcomes or as the experience of all Indigenous patients. The study reports meanings from 12 Emberá participants in one low-complexity hospital, not tested results.