Healthcare professionals' social distance towards immigrant patients: A descriptive cross-sectional study

Objective: This study aimed to determine the attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and the level of social distance among healthcare professionals who provide healthcare to refugee patients. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The researchers obtained the ethical approval of the study from the Non-Interventional Ethical Committee of Sakarya University Faculty of Medicine on 23/11/2018. The study was carried out between December 2018 and February 2019 at Sakarya University Research and Training Hospital. Methodology: A total of 1484 healthcare professionals work at clinics which are likely to offer care to refugee patients. Descriptive analyses were performed for the study. The data were collected by a questionnaire created by the researchers in light of related literature to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants and their work-related descriptive characteristics (such as, experience, beliefs, etc.) which may affect their attitudes while providing healthcare to refugee patients. The form was prepared by the researchers based on the literature knowledge. For determining the level of social distance towards refugee patients, Arkar's(28) social distance scale was used. Results: Health professionals show a serious level of social distance towards refugee patients due to various difficulties but mainly because of the language barrier. Conclusion: Healthcare professionals have great social distance to refugee patients. Moreover, they can continue their professional attitudes towards patients in emotional terms.