Immigrant GPs important for the Norwegian health care system

Ill.photo www.colourbox.com

Immigrant general practitioners in Norway: A special resource? A qualitative study
Esperanza Diaz, Stefan Hjörleifsson, Research Group for General Practice, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Norway,
 Scand J Public Health. 2011 Jan 26.

There is an increasing number of immigrant general practitioners (GPs) in Norway, in 2008 19,6 % of the 3969 Norwegian GPs had a foreign background. Still there is little knowledge about the practices of these doctors. Using qualitative focus groups and individual interviews, this article explores whether and how immigrant GPs think that their own ethnic background affects their practices and their work.

Immigrant GPs described a gradual process of becoming bicultural. They communicate with immigrant patients on the patient’s own terms and draw upon their special knowledge from abroad to help selected patients. At the same time they are adapting to Norwegian cultural expectations of the GP’s role. The GPs were aware of cultural issues in consultations with immigrant and Norwegian patients, but they would rarely make these issues explicit. Immigrant GPs experienced a big workload related to immigrant patients, but they accepted this as a natural part of their work.

The GPs ventured that cultural awareness, together with their personal experience in their own countries and as immigrants in Norway, made them able to sometimes help immigrant patients better than Norwegian GPs. However, the article also shows that the immigrant GPs felt that they had to work harder and be more careful than their Norwegian colleagues in order to avoid complaints from patients, and to be accepted by colleagues.

Read the entire article in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health