Abstract
This paper discusses how cultural and linguistic diversity among the Australian healthcare work force impacts the communication in aged care facilities with the aim of eliciting suggestions for Japan. By doing so, it challenges the popular, yet overly simplistic, notion that "Only Japanese can take good care of Japanese". The paper consists of the following two sections: 1) a look at the statistical information mainly from government reports (e.g. The National Institute of Labour Studies (2004) and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2009)) in order to show the general trends of the diversity in discussion, 2) a review of the literature in the area to identify the relevant issues in communication. The first section introduces two factors that contribute to the increased diversity in the Australian work force, namely a shortage of health workers and a high percentage (22%) of non-English speaking elderly in Australia. In particular, it relates to the fact that 25% of the work force either was born overseas or trained at overseas institutions. It also introduces the required English levels (minimum IELTS 5.5 for Aged care worker, 7.0 for nurse), and discusses the process of acquiring qualifications and VISA (if listed in the SOL). It indicates that diversity in the care workers and nurses is made possible by a careful governmental control. The second section discusses prior literature that analyses the communicative issues of overseas born/trained healthcare workers in Australia. It highlights four papers (Jackson 1996, Hawthorne 2000, Omeri 2002, Jeon 2007). In particular, Jackson (1996) and Omeri (2002) show that even nurses who passed a high English requirement face language problems at work, while "Australian nurses hesitate to work with CALD nurses to avoid responsibility in case things go wrong." This suggests that the so-called "language problem" is not merely derived from a "lack of English". These researchers argue that detailed orientations and intensive support could ease the situation. However, these "solutions" still maintain the belief that"Western medical culture is practical and explicit; therefore it is not difficult for CALD nurses to 'learn' it". Also, Hawthorne, argues that although the majority of the research findings indicate that same-culture-care receives predominately positive feedback, there are a few but nevertheless strong negative reactions. From this, we can say that if sharing a culture causes problems, then logically not sharing a culture (cross-cultural care) may help avoid certain problems. The paper concludes with a discussion of Jeon (2007), who says that since there is no literature to suggest any differences in the quality of care between CALD nurses and their domestic counterparts, CALD nurses should be given opportunities to implement their own effective approaches to care. Her view concurs with Kawamura's (2007) claim that the practice of cross-cultural care, regardless of wheater the culture is defined by ethnicity, age or gender, helps people appreciate different values and cultures. I view their arguments as part of an active movement to create a new care-culture that better fits the current and future needs of Australia and Japan.
