Nursing Students Promote Culturally Congruent Care for Immigrant and Refugee Communities at Transcultural Care Exhibition

 

The College of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of Bahrain held its annual Transcultural Care Exhibition, where nursing students ran health outreach and awareness sessions on culturally congruent care for health professionals serving Bahrain’s diverse population.

Around half of Bahrain’s residents are non-Bahraini, including expatriate and migrant workers and their families, immigrants and refugees. Some of these groups, particularly low-income migrant workers and refugees, face language, financial and cultural barriers when using health services.

The exhibition is the culmination of the Transcultural Care project in the Transcultural Nursing course, which prepares graduates to care for non-Bahraini patients. Students study the health beliefs and practices of the cultural groups living in Bahrain relating to childbirth, labour and delivery, chronic illness, and death and dying, together with the traditional practices that accompany them, including herbs, specific manoeuvres, reflexology and acupoints.

At the exhibition, student groups set up booths representing communities that live and work in Bahrain, including the Indian, Pakistani, Thai and Japanese communities. Using traditional dress, food, displays and leaflets, they explained each culture’s health beliefs and practices and their implications for nursing care, and discussed them with visiting faculty and health professionals.

The initiative aims to equip health professionals with the knowledge to integrate cultural concepts, theories and beliefs into their practice, so that every patient, whatever their nationality, language or faith, receives care that respects their background, and immigrant, refugee and other disadvantaged patients face fewer barriers to the care they need.

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