Time Control: Coping with Late Patients and No-Shows

Posted by Marcia Carteret, M. Ed. on Apr 5, 2013 in Blog, Key Concepts in Cross-Cultural Communications, Patient Compliance, Special Topics, Talking to Patients | 0 comments In many private pediatric and family practices, as well as the Child Health Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado, providers and staff talk about the challenges of working with patients and families who show up very late for appointments – or no-show entirely.   A Cross-Cultural Perspective Remember that people’s sense of time and time management is very much culturally based. A...
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Developing a Cross-Cultural Mindset

Posted by Marcia Carteret, M. Ed. on Mar 22, 2012 in Blog, Key Concepts in Cross-Cultural Communications | 0 comments Memorizing lists of dos and don’ts per culture is impractical and leads to stereotyping. When we stereotype people we tend to apply characteristics rigidly, as if to say that ALL people from a particular culture believe the same things and behave in the same ways. This simply does not leave room for the great variety in human experience, individual personality, and so on. To begin building an...
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Eliciting Quality Patient Responses in Cross-Cultural Care

Posted by Marcia Carteret, M. Ed. on Mar 23, 2011 in Blog, Key Concepts in Cross-Cultural Communications, Non-English Speaking Patients, Patient Compliance, Special Topics, Talking to Patients | 0 comments The cultural worlds created by humans are not controlled by universal laws of science; each culture operates according to its own internal dynamic. Even members of a given culture acquire most of what they know in the process of growing up. Relating to other people isn’t learned the way, for example, disease theory is learned. So culture can’t be distilled into learned facts and doctors...
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Cultural Aspects of Communication

Posted by Marcia Carteret, M. Ed. on Nov 2, 2010 in Key Concepts in Cross-Cultural Communications | 0 comments Have you ever wondered why people from some cultures talk so loud and seem aggressive? Why do they stand so close to you when they speak? Or maybe you’ve wondered why some patients seem reluctant to speak or maintain eye contact? Could that be cultural? Why do people from some cultures make it difficult to get a straight answer to a simple question? Why do some people from some cultures seem...
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8 Tips for Communicating with Limited English Proficiency Patients

Posted by Marcia Carteret, M. Ed. on Oct 21, 2010 in Immigrant and Refugee Health, Key Concepts in Cross-Cultural Communications, Non-English Speaking Patients, Patient Compliance, Special Topics, Talking to Patients | 0 comments Many of the private practices I have visited for the purpose of cross-cultural training are lucky to have staff and providers on their team who speak Spanish and other foreign languages. However, some practices are seeing patients from such diverse cultural backgrounds that it is impossible to have staff and providers capable of understanding all the languages of these patients. During...
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