Pacific Patients and Families’ Experience of Care in Adult General Medical Services
How patients and whānau experience care in our hospitals affects their health outcomes. However inequitable health outcomes, particularly for Māori and Pacific patients, show that not everyone experiences our health system in the same way. Inequitable health outcomes are unjust, avoidable and unnecessary. Key to addressing these inequities is listening to the perspectives of those affected and then working with them to create change.
Image of Adult Medical Services, Cultural Experience Project, Pacific patients and whānau report
In 2018 Auckland DHB explored the experiences of Māori and Pacific patients and whānau on our general medicine wards. Here we’ll focus on the experience of Pacific patients and their families, but if you’d like to read about the experiences of Māori patients and whānau a second project post focuses on this.
Images of AMS posters - Better understanding Māori patient & whānau experiences (left), Better understanding the experiences of Pacific patients and family (right).
With the support of Tautai Fakataha, Auckland DHB’s Pacific Health Team, a talanoa approach of open, informal conversation was used with Pacific patients and their families. Fifteen patients and families were interviewed, where possible in their first language. These stories were analysed and revealed the following themes:
Culture – cultural safety and Pacific culture
Talanoa – reciprocal communication
Tautai fakataha – cultural support
Family as the foundation of everything
Better understanding the experiences of Pacific patients and family poster
These findings were summarised the AMS Pacific Report, including what good looks like, principles and suggested actions for each of the themes described above. This information was given to nursing leaders who planned how they would translate the recommendations from patients and families into tangible change initiatives. An education pack was also created for sharing with ward staff.
November 2021
THANK YOU
This work, and the subsequent change in practice, would not have been possible without the Pacific patients and families who shared their stories with us. They were willing to recount experiences which may have been distressing and painful to help us improve our services for future patients. For this we are deeply grateful.
AUTHORS
Emma Wylie - Consultation & Co-Design Manager, Ara Manawa
Vanessa Duthie - Consumer Experience Team Manager, Patient Experience